Golden Waxcap - Hygrocybe chlorophana

The cap, initially domed, is yellow and slimy; it becomes broadly umbonate or even flat with age and grows to between 2 and 4 cm in diameter. This Waxcap does not blacken either with age or when bruised, but older specimens become paler. The thin cap flesh is yellow. The gills are narrowly attached to the stipe (adnate or adnexed/partly free).  The slender stem (stipe) is typically 2 to 3 mm diameter and the same colour as the cap. It is viscid and has no ring; its flesh is yellowish and solid.

The Butter Waxcap (Hygrocybe ceracea) has a greasy, not a sticky, cap, and broadly adnate/slightly decurrent gills.  There are other yellow waxcaps with slimy or sticky caps.

Your notes must state the texture (sticky/greasy/dry) of cap and stipe and photos should show gills as well as cap

Cropped pasture and churchyards

Late summer to early winter

Fairly frequent and widespread in Britain.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland.