Info

This tool allows waxcaps to be looked up by character traits. The list of species is not exhaustive and focuses primarily on fungi that might be found in Scotland / Britain, and the list of characters in the ID key is not exhaustive and may contain mistakes.

How to use the key

Select traits to include (), require () or exclude (X) to filter the list of species.

• If multiple traits are ticked in the same character, species that match any of them receive +1 point.

  eg. Cap = [red OR orange] matches all species that can be red, orange, or red and orange

• Use the padlock to filter the list of species to only include those with that trait.

  eg. Cap = [ cream] AND [brown OR grey] is useful when unable to decide whether a pale-coloured cap is more brown or grey.

  Caution - this may filter out your species if the locked trait is not associated with it in the database.

  eg. Spore length (µm) = [ Min: 8 / Max: 12] filters out all species with larger minimum or smaller maximum spore length.

• Use the X icon to filter out species with undesirable traits.

  eg. Size = [X large] hides all species that can be as large as your hand

  Caution - your species will get filtered out if you exclude a trait it sometimes has.

• Number fields are provided for single measurements or ranges. The Single field allows single measurements eg. cap diameter when only one fruiting body is found but ranges should be entered wherever practical.

  eg. Stem length (mm) = [45] AND Spore length (µm) = [Min: 8 / Max: 12]

• Red numbers beside trait labels indicate how many species that have not yet been ruled out have this trait.

  5 species have a blueish cap and no dark spot; in 3 of those the cap can also be brown.

  

• Positive and negative numbers under the species thumbnails show how many traits they match or conflict with. Species become greyed out once they fail to match any of your selections in 2 different characters. and X remove non-matching species from the list entirely.

  

  These 5 species all have a blueish cap and no dark spot, filtered using the selections in the image above; the user also selected traits in two other characters. Two species match both of those, two species match one but not both, one species does not match either and has been greyed out.

• Some characters (eg. basidia measurements) are missing from some species as data was unavailable in the reference material - species with missing data are not filtered out when those characters are used as filters.
• Click the thumbnail of any species to expand the image and see all of its traits in a pop-up window.
• Use the Compare button to select any two species for a side-by-side comparison.

Sources

Species information

Character traits have been derived from David Boertmann's descriptions in Fungi of Northern Europe Vol. 1, The Genus Hygrocybe, 2nd ed. (2010). Many of the field characters such as colour and texture have been simplified to keep the key manageable so there may be discrepancies due to how I interpreted the descriptions.

Images

Photographs are reproduced under Creative Commons licences permitting non-commercial use. Each photo includes the photographer's name, CC licence and the URL to the original source. Photos without attribution are my own. Images have been cropped but not otherwise edited.

CC licences used:

• CC BY 4.0
• CC BY-SA 4.0
• CC BY-NC 4.0
• CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Icons used in the key were illustrated by James Callaghan. The illustrations for Habit, Cap Shape and Cheilocystidia Shapes have been adapted from or inspired by Flora Agaricina Neerlandica Vol. 1 (1988) figs. 28, 29, 34a and 34b (pp.55-61).