Hygrocybe (Fries) P. Kummer
Führ. Pilzk.: 26, 111. 1871.

Principle characteristics of the genus Hygrocybe:

• Fruiting bodies often brightly colored reddish, yellow, or green
• Pileus usually glabrous, often lubricous to glutinous
• Spore print white
• Spores smooth and inamyloid
• Lamellar trama parallel
• Basidia 5-7 times longer than spore length

Keys and descriptions of the genus Hygrocybe:

• Largent, D.L. (1985). The Agaricales (Gilled Fungi) of California. 5. Hygrophoraceae. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA.
• Hesler, L.R. & Smith, A.H. (1963). North American Species of Hygrophorus. University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, TN.
• Boertmann, D. (1996). The Genus Hygrocybe (Fungi of Northern Europe, Vol. 1). Danish Mycological Society: Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Hygrophorus s.l.: Trial field key to the species of Hygrophorus in the Pacific Northwest
• The Waxcap Website

Hygrocybe species known to occur in California:

1. Hygrocybe acutoconica
2. Hygrocybe acuta
3. Hygrocybe albinellus (*)
4. Hygrocybe atro-olivacea (*)
5. Hygrocybe aurantiolutescens
6. Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens
7. Hygrocybe calyptriformis
8. Hygrocybe cantharellus
9. Hygrocybe ceracea
10. Hygrocybe chlorophana
11. Hygrocybe coccineocrenata
12. Hygrocybe coccinea
13. Hygrocybe conica
14. Hygrocybe flavescens
15. Hygrocybe flavifolia
16. Hygrocybe fornicata
17. Hygrocybe helobia
18. Hygrocybe insipida
19. Hygrocybe irrigata
20. Hygrocybe laetissima
21. Hygrocybe laeta
22. Hygrocybe mamillatus (*)
23. Hygrocybe marchii
24. Hygrocybe miniata
25. Hygrocybe minutula
26. Hygrocybe mollis
27. Hygrocybe moseri
28. Hygrocybe nigrescens
29. Hygrocybe nitiosa
30. Hygrocybe nivea
31. Hygrocybe olivaceoniger
32. Hygrocybe ovina
33. Hygrocybe parvula
34. Hygrocybe persistens
35. Hygrocybe pseudomarchii (*)
36. Hygrocybe psittacina
37. Hygrocybe punicea
38. Hygrocybe pura (*)
39. Hygrocybe reai (*)
40. Hygrocybe singeri
41. Hygrocybe splendidissima
42. Hygrocybe strangulata
43. Hygrocybe subaromatica (*)
44. Hygrocybe subaustragalga (*)
45. Hygrocybe subcitrinopallida (*)
46. Hygrocybe subminutula
47. Hygrocybe subvitellina
48. Hygrocybe unguinosa
49. Hygrocybe virescens

(*) We can find no evidence that these species have been transfered from Hygrophorus to Hygrocbye, where they apparently belong.

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