Vermilion Waxcap - Hygrocybe miniata

A small, bright red, or red-orange mushroom. The cap is typically 1 to 3cm in diameter and has small scales (squamulous) - use a hand lens. Gills are reddish with pale yellow edges, broadly attached (adnate) to the stipe and sometimes with a decurrent tooth.  The smell is indistinct, unlike Garlic Waxcap, Hygrocybe helobia. 

There are several very similar small red/orange waxcaps found in similar habitats

This is a very difficult waxcap to identify, and we recommend that a specimen is examined microscopically by an expert before submission to NatureSpot

Acid grasslands

Usually a species of late summer and autumn.

Widespread but rather local in Britain.

Uncommon