A slimy, olive-brown woodwax of pine woods with a paler, yellowish margin, pale yellow gills and a yellowish stem below a ring zone. It often fruits late in the season, after the first frosts, and forms ectomycorrhizae with two- and three-needle pines. In the strict sense it is a European species; similar North American woodwaxes are now called H. siccipes and H. boyeri.
Reported as edible (First Nature), though rarely gathered. No dangerous look-alikes are commonly cited; confirm the slimy cap and stem, waxy decurrent gills and white spore print.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal with pines; on nutrient-poor, acidic soil in pine and mixed woods, often by tracks; autumn into early winter, often after frosts.
Distribution
Europe: fairly common in Britain and Ireland and common in Scandinavia, less so in central and southern Europe (First Nature). Moreau et al. (2018) found H. hypothejus in the strict sense to be strictly European. North American collections reported under this name belong to its North American counterpart H. siccipes or to H. boyeri, so North American records, including Pacific Northwest herbarium records, need re-examination.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-6 cm, convex then flattening, sometimes slightly sunken; olive-brown, paler and yellower at the margin; slimy when wet. Gills: adnate to decurrent, distant, pale yellow becoming orange-yellow or browning. Stem: 4-7 cm long, 0.7-1.4 cm thick, pale yellow, sometimes orange-tinged, slimy below a ring zone. Odor and taste: not distinctive. Spore print: white. Spores: 8-9.5 x 3.5-5.5 um, ellipsoid, smooth (First Nature).
