Our wild mushroom season usually begins in earnest in late June or early July and lasts until fall or early winter, depending on the weather. The excessive fog and rain that we’ve received during this spring and early summer may herald a bumper crop.
As of now, we’re seeing plenty of waxy cap mushrooms, including the small scarlet waxies (Hygrophorus coccineus) shown above, which are hard to miss. (At least I think that they’re scarlet waxy caps; I’m not confident identifying fungi.) We’re also seeing plenty of what I think are golden waxy caps (Hygrophorus flavescens):
When it comes to waxy caps, even the experts are having problems identifying them, now that DNA testing is proving old assumptions wrong. For example, not all waxy caps are waxy (or sticky or slimy) to the touch, but that’s the least of the identification difficulties.
MushroomExpert.com, currently reports that, “Answering the question ‘What are the North American waxy cap species and how to tell them apart?’ will require many years, many studies, many thorough and well-documented collections ….” (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 9, 2023.)