Almond woodwax

Overview

The almond woodwax, Hygrophorus agathosmus, is a waxy cap fungus of conifer woods. Its cap is slimy and ash grey or pale grey-brown, and its flesh is soft and white. Its most noticed character is a fragrant smell like cherry pits or bitter almonds, which can be weak in some specimens. In the catalogue it is recorded as an aromatic cooked mushroom in Europe, and the sources read here do not support that food role as a settled fact.

A difficult group

The species belongs to a complex of closely related Hygrophorus species that includes H. agathosmoides and H. albofloccosus. Mycoweb notes that H. albofloccosus is commonly misidentified as H. agathosmus. Similar mushrooms include H. odoratus, which has the same smell but is smaller, and H. pustulatus, which has larger spores.

Because the group is hard to separate in the field, a name that appears in a food record may refer to a neighbouring species. The catalogue marks regional identification as required for this entry.

Edibility is reported inconsistently

One source describes the species as edible but bland-tasting. Mycoweb says that the closely related H. albofloccosus, which it notes is often mistaken for this species, is probably edible. A third encyclopedia entry says the species is not edible, but its description refers to a coal-gas smell that does not match this species, so it is not relied on here.

The conflicting reports leave the food status unsettled. This page therefore records the reports and does not give a verdict on whether the mushroom is eaten or safe to eat.

Habitat and occurrence

The species grows under conifers in forest habitats. The catalogue places its food record in Europe and describes its ecology as conifer-associated mycorrhizal. The fruiting season and the host trees are not given in the evidence read, so neither is stated here.

Safety and what is not known

No source read for this page gives a safety assessment for this species, and the reports on edibility conflict. Confirmation by a qualified expert is needed before any use, because look-alikes differ in edibility. Nothing on this page is advice for collecting or identifying wild waxy caps.