Small to medium agaric, growing on the ground or bryophytes, with a white spore print. Pileus white, pale, yellow, red or pink, green, purple or grey, rarely orange or brown, not or rarely viscid, often with radial splits that extend through the central flesh of the lamellae. Lamellae free, adnexed, adnate, sinuate or notched or subdecurrent. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia absent. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis. Clamp connections present or absent.

Humidicutis belongs to the waxcap family, along with Camarophyllopsis, Hygrocybe and Hygrophorus. Waxcaps typically have rather thick lamellae, a smooth pileus and stipe, and are frequently brightly coloured. Among the waxcaps, Humidicutis can be separated from Camarophyllopsis by the pileipellis that is a cutis rather than a hymeniderm or epithelium; and from Hygrocybe by the clamp connections present only at the base of the basidia. In addition, members of Hygrocybe subgenus Cuphophyllus have an irregular lamellar trama. The genus Hygrophorus, with one species H. involutus, is distinguished by the divergent lamellar trama. Lamellae in Laccaria are coloured and rather thick, but that genus has spiny spores.

Clamp connections in Humidicutis are of medallion form, with a gap between the hypha and the curved section of the clamp. Such clamp connections also occur in Hygrocybe subgenus Pseudohygrocybe, but not in other waxcaps.

Humidicutis (Singer) Singer, Sydowia 12: 225 (1959).

Nine species: Humidicutis arcohastata, H. bagleyi, H. helicoides, H. lewelliniae, H. lilacinoviridis, H. mavis, H. taekeri, H. viridimagentea and H. woodii.

W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. (and probably also N.T.).

In native forests.

On the ground.

Saprotrophic.

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of H. arcohastata, H. lewelliniae and H. mavis (as Hygrocybe)]

Fuhrer, B. & Robinson, R. (1992), Rainforest Fungi of Tasmania and South-east Australia. CSIRO Press, East Melbourne. [Illustration of H. mavis (as H. pura)]

Grey, P. & Grey, E. (2005), Fungi Down Under. Fungimap, South Yarra. [Description, Illustration and Map for H. lewelliniae (as Hygrocybe)]

Horak, E. (1990), Monograph of the New Zealand Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales), New Zealand J. Bot. 28: 255–309. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. mavis (under H. pura)]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of H. lewelliniae and H. mavis (both as Hygrocybe)]

Young, A.M. (1999b), A field key to the Hygrophoraceae of south-eastern Australia, Australas. Mycol. 18: 63–69.[Field Key to known species]

Young, A.M. (1999a), The Hygrocybeae (Fungi, Basidiomycota, Agaricales, Hygrophoraceae) of the Lane Cove Bushland Park, New South Wales, Austrobaileya 5: 535–564. [Description and Microcharacters of H. lewelliniae (as Hygrocybe)]

Young, A.M. (2000b), Additions to the Hygrophoraceae (Fungi, Agaricales) of south-eastern Australia, Muelleria 13: 1–36. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. helicoides, and discussion of additional collections of other species (all as Hygrocybe)]

Young, A.M. (2000c), Additions to the Hygrocybeae (Fungi, Hygrophoraceae) of Victoria. I, Muelleria 14: 51–64. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. arcohastata (as Hygrocybe]

Young, A.M. (2001b), Remarks on Hygrophoraceae in or near Lamington National Park, south-east Queensland, Australia, Australas. Mycol. 19: 96–100. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. bagleyi]

Young, A.M. (2005a), Fungi of Australia: Hygrophoraceae, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of eight Australian species, along with Illustration of five of the eight, and a Key]

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [Description and Illustration of H. lewelliniae (as Hygrocybe)]

Young, A.M. & Syme, K. (2007), A new green species of Humdicutis from Western Australia, Australas. Mycol. 26: 71–74. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of H. viridimagentea]

Young, A.M. & Wood, A.E. (1997), Studies on the Hygrophoraceae (Fungi, Homobasidiomycetes, Agaricales) of Australia, Austral. Syst. Bot. 10: 911–1030 [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. lewelliniae, H. lilacinoviridis, H. mavis, H. woodii and H. taekeri (all as Hygrocybe)]

Young, A.M., Kearney, R. & Kearney, E. (2001), Additions to the Hygrophoraceae of Lane Cove Bushland Park, Australas. Mycol. 20: 79–86. [discussion of characters of H. helicoides and H. taekeri]