Small to medium agaric, growing on the ground, with a white spore print. Pileus yellow, orange, red or pink or black, rarely green, dry or moist, viscid, rarely glutinous, sometimes blackening on handling. Lamellae free, adnexed or adnate. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores sometimes constricted medially, hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present or absent. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis, rarely a trichoderm. Clamp connections present, rarely absent.

Within Hygrocybe, subgenus Hygrocybe differs from subgenus Cuphophyllus by the regular rather than irregular lamellar trama, and from subgenus Pseudohygrocybe by the very long elements in the lamellar trama (more than 1000 µm long compared to less than 400 µm long in Pseudohygrocybe). In addition, the blackening reaction found in some species of subgenus Hygrocybe is never present in Pseudohygrocybe, and there is a wide range of lamellar attachment in Pseudohygrocybe, compared to the free to narrowly adnate lamellae of subgenus Hygrocybe. Among other waxcaps, Humidicutis has clamps only at the base of basidia, and Camarophyllopsis has a pileipellis that is a hymeniderm or epithelium. To distinguish Hygrocybe from other agaric genera see under subgenus Pseudohygrocybe.

Hygrocybe subgenus Hygrocybe.

Twelve species: Hygrocybe astatogala, H. austrolutea, H. cerasinomutata, H. chlorophana (= H. flavescens), H. conica (with var. tierneyi and var. conicoides), H. cystidiorubra, H. persistens, H. polychroma, H. rubrolutea, H. siccitatopapillata and H. wilsonensis. Note that H. kandoora belongs here, but is keyed out in Hygrocybe (Pseudohygrocybe).

The other two subgenera of Hygrocybe (Cuphophyllus and Pseudohygrocybe) are keyed out separately.

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

In native forests (including cool-temperate rainforest and on coastal sand dunes), and also in lawns of exotic grass.

On the ground.

Saprotrophic.

Bougher, N.L. (2009a), Fungi of the Perth region and beyond: a self-managed field book, Western Australian Naturalists' Club (Inc.), Perth. [Description and Illustration of H. conica]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of H. conica and H. polychroma]

Bougher, N.L. & Young, A.M. (1997), Hygrophoraceae of Western Australia, Mycotaxon 63: 25–35, and 65: 525 for errata. [Description and Microcharacters of H. conica and H. polychroma, and Illustration of H. polychroma]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of H. astatogala, H. conica and H. persistens]

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

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of H. astatogala]

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. astatogala (as Bertrandia)]

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. astatogala]

Young, A.M. (2000b), Additions to the Hygrophoraceae (Fungi, Agaricales) of south-eastern Australia, Muelleria 13: 1–36. [Description and Microcharacters of H. conica, H. persistens and H. siccitatopapillata and B&W Illustration of H. persistens]

Young, A.M. (2002a), Further Hygrophoraceae of Victoria, Australas. Mycol. 20: 115–117. [Description and Microcharacters of H. conica var. conicoides and Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of H. persistens]

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

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

Young, A.M. & Mills, A.K. (2002), The Hygrophoraceae of Tasmania, Muelleria 16: 3–28. [Discussion of Tasmanian collections of H. astatogala]

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. astatogala, H. austrolutea, cerasinomutata, H. chlorophana (as H. flavescens), H. conica, H. cystidiorubra, H. kandoora, H. rubrolutea, H. siccitatopapillata and H. wilsonensis]

Young, A.M., Bougher, N.L. & Robinson, R.M. (2000), Hygrophoraceae of Western Australia II. Further taxa, Australas. Mycol. 19: 41–48. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of H. austrolutea]