A family of agaric fungi characterised by their waxy, thick-edged gills, smooth to viscid caps, and often strikingly colourful basidiomata. Members range from the brilliant red, orange, yellow, and green waxcaps to the more subdued, often glutinous waxgills found mostly in forest habitats. Spores are smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, and typically ellipsoid. The gills are thick, distant, and waxy, a key diagnostic feature separating the family from other white-spored agarics.

A genus of waxgills characterised by pale to grey-brown colours, thick, waxy, widely spaced gills, and dry to slightly viscid caps. Basidiomata are typically robust, with fleshy stipes and smooth, unornamented surfaces.

Basidiomata are typically small to medium-sized, with simple, unornamented stipes and non-gelatinised tissues, giving the fruitbodies a clean, matte appearance compared with the more glutinous Gliophorus and Hygrophorus. Lamellae are decurrent to subdecurrent, thick, blunt-edged, and waxy.

These are small, brightly-coloured, saprobic, soil and litter-inhabiting fungi. Gliophorus distinguishes itself by having a thick glutinous cap and stem that are viscid to glutinous, in some cases with a glutinous edge to the gills. There are at least twelve Gliophorus species reported in New Zealand and a few undescribed ones. Identification is largely dependent on colour, size, and the shape of the cap.

Note: Spoome Gliophorus species exhibit UV-sensitive pigments; colours may fade, grey, or shift hue as basidiomes age, particularly after exposure to sunlight following wet conditions (Click here for more information). This photochemical change is independent of hygrophany.

A very similar genus to the Gliophorus, which took DNA to separate it from them. A small genus of yellow species, with only one species in New Zealand and a few others worldwide.

This small genus of brightly coloured saprobic agarics is distinguished from the other wax-gills by the cap that splits even in very young specimens. The split occurs in such a way as to pull apart the two faces of a single gill. found growing in moss or leaf litter on the forest floor during late autumn, with caps that are moist to viscid. Microscopically, it is recognised by the absence of clamp connections in all tissues except at the base of basidia where large medallion clamps occur.

This large group of saprobic fungi, with white spores, They have thick, waxy gills and a translucent texture, particularly evident in the gills. Some are drab, but most are bright with striking colours dominated by red, orange, and yellow fruiting bodies. Common during the colder and wetter months of the year, sometimes in large numbers. Microscopically, this genus is distinguished from the other waxgills in this group by subparallel to parallel lamellar trama.

Section Firmae contains fungi which have dimorphous spores and, in some cases, basida (dimorphous means of two different sizes). Only one species is described in New Zealand, that being H. firma. This name is doubtful and originates from a species described from Sri Lanka. Recent DNA sequencing has confirmed that this species does not occur in New Zealand, though we do have six species within sect. Firmae, none of which are named. The following species are the ones I have come across that are in sect. firmae. I don’t know if these are the same as the six mentioned above or different ones again. Care is needed when looking at these microscopically, as failing to see the dimorphous spores can result in this species being misidentified.

This small group of waxgills are recognised by their habit of going black with age or when damaged. Three species are found in NZ. Only two are shown here. One, H. astatogala, is native and found in forest habitats, and the other two are introduced and found in grassland. H. astatogala comes in different colour forms, although no one has explained why this is the case.

Lichenomphalia is a genus of lichenised basidiomycetes producing small omphalinoid agaricoid basidiomes in association with a gelatinous, green, chlorococcoid thallus. The genus represents the basidiolichen condition within the Hygrophoraceae, where the fungal partner forms both a minute mushroom and a persistent vegetative thallus containing algal cells.