Hygrophorus gliocyclus

A slimy woodwax of conifer woods

Hygrophorus gliocyclus has a viscid cap 3 to 9 cm across. It is convex, then plano-convex to centrally depressed, and cream to cream-yellow with a slightly darker centre. When moist the surface is glutinous; when dry it looks varnished. The gills are adnate to decurrent, thick and waxy, and the same colour as the cap. The spore print is white, and the spores measure 8.5 to 10 by 4.5 to 6.0 micrometres.

The stem is 3.0 to 5.0 cm long and 1.5 to 2.5 cm thick. Its top is whitish and minutely scaly, and its lower part is cream-yellow and covered in slime. A glutinous partial veil leaves a slimy ring when the fungus is fresh. It grows scattered to gregarious under conifers and fruits from mid to late winter. The description does not name a host tree species.

A name the catalogue gets wrong

The catalogue entry gives the English name ivory woodwax. That name belongs to Hygrophorus eburneus, a different white species with a more slender build and no annulus. The Mykoweb description lists no common name for H. gliocyclus, so this page uses the scientific name as its title until a regional name is sourced.

Fries described the species in Monographia Hymenomycetum Sueciae 2 in 1863. The catalogue marks the name as a research label rather than a checked current name, and this page has not reconciled it against a current taxonomic authority.

Where it is recorded

Spain lists the species in Part A of the annex to Real Decreto 30/2009, the national decree that sets health conditions for marketing mushrooms for food. Part A is the list of wild species that may be sold fresh. Hygrophorus gliocyclus appears only in Part A, with five other Hygrophorus species: H. agathosmus, H. latitabundus (limacinus), H. marzuolus, H. penarius and H. russula.

The decree governs what may be sold fresh. It does not assess the safety of any collection. The catalogue describes the species' range as Southern Europe; the sources read here support only the Spanish listing and the Mykoweb description, which is part of the California Fungi database. No other European food record was found.

Edibility and lookalikes

The only edibility statement found is on the Mykoweb page: 'Edible, but maybe too slimy to be of value.' The page gives no preparation, cooking method or tested use, and it does not establish that the species is safe to eat.

Hygrophorus eburneus is the viscid species most often confused with this one. It is white and more slender, and it lacks an annulus. H. gliocyclus is cream-yellow, with a slimy stem and a glutinous ring when fresh. Anyone considering eating a viscid Hygrophorus should have the collection confirmed by a specialist first, and the Spanish listing does not replace that check.

Open questions

The sources read give no food tradition, no regional name, no account of cooking, and no range beyond the Spanish listing and the California Fungi context. The next research question is which European regions use this species, under what local name, and whether the Spanish fresh-market listing rests on a published assessment.