Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Spore print "light-colored": white or buff, sometimes tinged with pink or tan. Greenish and (except for the Russulales) yellow spore prints also go here
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk

None of the special features distinguishing the other white-spored genera:
Gills not free, as in the Lepiotas and Amanitas
Basidia not extra-long, as in the Hygrophoraceae
Spores smooth, except for Lentinellus

Growing on the ground

Found in woods
Not rooting

Spores white to creamy
Gills orange, deeply decurrent
Cap some shade of orange or yellow

Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca     (Wulfen: Fries) R. Maire

Here are the characters that distinguish this species from the others in its group. For its more general characters, see higher up on the page.
If there's just a few words or a microscopic feature here, a more thorough description can be found above.

Diagnosis

• Cap up to 3" across; yellowish orange to orange to orange brown, occasionally all brown to dark brown, often depressed and darker in the center; usually minutely velutinate
  
• Gills forking repeatedly, deeper or brighter orange
  
• Singly to scattered, on ground (usually under conifers) or coniferous wood

Microscropic Characters

• Spores 4.5-8 x 3-4.5 µm, elliptical, smooth, many dextrinoid

Comments

There are also forms with yellow or light orange gills. It's not clear whether this is a very variable species or a species complex
Reports of indigestion and hallucinations have been attributed to this mushroom, probably due to confusion with its look-alikes


 

 

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