English: Blackening Waxcap.
German: Schwärzender saftling; Kegeliger Saftling.
Synonym: Agaricus conicus; Agaricus tristis; Hygrophorus tristis; Hygrocybe tristis; Hygrophorus olivaceoniger; Hygrocybe olivaceonigra; Hygrocybe cinereifolia.
Genus: type species of the genus Hygrocybe.
Region: Europe.
Habitat: grassland, rich in nutrients; in lines along roadside verges, on hillsides, where the grass is well shaded, moist and mossy; unimproved parkland, golf course margins, embankments of water reservoirs, man-made boating lakes, country churchyards.
Use: toxic.
MycologyIdentification: readily distinguished by its long-lasting black fruit bodies.
Type: very variable; abundant, in large trooping groups; fruiting late summer and autumn; flesh initially white, quickly turns black when cut; odour and taste not distinctive; saprobic on the dead roots of grasses, grassland plants, mosses.
Cap: red, orange, yellow, light orange to orange-red, paler at the margin, jet black with age, on touch; sharply conical, gradually opening, occasionally almost flat; with slight central umbo; surface is greasy, very slippery in damp weather, dry and silky in dry weather; quite shiny; 4 to 7cm in diameter.
Hymenium: gills pale lemon yellow, later more orange, then blackening.
Stem: cylindrical; 4 to 10 cm tall; 5 to 10 mm in diameter; no ring; initially yellow with a scarlet tinge near the cap, much paler at the base; full, rather than hollow; blackens, from the top downwards when ripening.
Spore print: white.
Spores: ellipsoidal; smooth; 8. to 10, by 6 to 7 µm; inamyloid; basidia 2 to 4 spored, with or without clamps.