A small, slender, scarlet to reddish-orange waxcap with thick, distant, pale yellow gills that run down the stem. Its trumpet-like profile gives it a chanterelle-like look, but it has true sharp-edged gills. In eastern North America it grows in woods on soil, moss or well-rotted, mossy wood. It may be a group of closely related species.
Not worth eating. Some guides report it as edible, but the fruitbodies are tiny and insubstantial. It is not a chanterelle: chanterelles have blunt, forked ridges rather than sharp-edged gills, and are much fleshier.
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Habitat
In woods, especially under hardwoods: on the ground, in moss, or on well-decayed, moss-covered logs and stumps. Gregarious or in loose troops, summer and fall. Its exact ecological role is uncertain; waxcaps may be associated with mosses.
Distribution
Widely distributed east of the Great Plains in North America (described from North America by Schweinitz). The name has also been reported from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. European material is now generally treated as the separate species H. lepida (Wikipedia, citing the Global Fungal Red List), although First Nature still lists H. lepida as a synonym.
Characteristics
Cap: 6-20 mm, broadly convex to centrally depressed, margin inrolled and finely scalloped; dry or slightly tacky, finely fibrillose; scarlet to reddish orange with a yellowish margin, fading to orange. Gills: decurrent, nearly distant, thick, waxy, pale yellow. Stem: 30-70 mm x 2-4 mm, scarlet to reddish orange, yellowish at the base. Flesh: yellowish to orangish. Odor and taste: not distinctive. Spore print: white. Spores: 9-12 x 5-6 um, smooth, inamyloid (MushroomExpert).
