Crimson waxcapHygrocybe punicea

The crimson waxcap (Hygrocybe punicea) is the largest of the red waxcaps, the brightly coloured, waxy mushrooms of old grassland. It only grows in long-established grassland that hasn't been fertilised, so it's assessed as Vulnerable in Europe, and finding it is a sign of a valuable meadow. First Nature calls waxcaps the "orchids of the fungi world". Its name punicea means crimson or blood red.

How do you identify a crimson waxcap? The cap is usually 3 to 10 cm across, occasionally 15 cm, bell-shaped at first, then convex or broadly umbonate and finally flattened, with a wavy edge. It's a dark blood red, duller than the scarlet waxcap, often with a narrow yellowish rim, and greasy or slimy when wet. As it ages, it fades in patches, usually from the centre, to yellowish buff. The gills are thick, waxy and widely spaced, narrowly attached, and yellow, orange or reddish. The stem is 5 to 12 cm tall and 1 to 2 cm thick, stout, dry, coarsely fibrous and streaky, yellow flushed red at the top, orange lower down and white at the base. The spore print is white. It never turns black.

Where does it grow? In old, short-turf grassland that has never had fertiliser: grazed pasture, old lawns and churchyards, and upland grassland on acid soil, often among mosses. Waxcaps seem to live in close partnership with grassland plants or mosses, so they disappear after ploughing, reseeding or fertilising. It fruits in autumn and early winter, most of all in mid to late autumn. Across Europe, more than 90 % of semi-natural grassland disappeared in the last century.

Is the crimson waxcap edible? We treat it as inedible. Some guides list it as edible, but there are reports from North America of unpleasant stomach upsets after eating it, and some sources claim it accumulates cadmium, although we found no measurements. It's also a threatened species, so photograph it and record your find (for example on iNaturalist or with Plantlife's Waxcap Watch) instead of picking it.

What can you mistake it for? Most often the much commoner scarlet waxcap. That one is smaller, with a 2 to 5 cm brighter scarlet cap and a smooth, thinner stem that's red at the top rather than fibrous. The vermilion waxcap is smaller still, with a dry, scurfy 1 to 3 cm cap. The blackening waxcap has a pointed conical cap and turns completely black with age or handling, while the crimson waxcap never blackens. Outside our catalogue, the splendid waxcap (Hygrocybe splendidissima) is almost as large but brighter, with a dry cap that doesn't fade in patches, a flattened, grooved stem and a smell of honey as it dries. Faded old crimson waxcaps can be confused with the smaller, very slippery orange waxcap (Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens).