Hygrocybe marchii

The waxycap Hygrocybe marchii (Bres.) Singer.

Classification

Kingdom Fungi
Phylum Basidiomycota
Class Basidiomycetes
Order Agaricales
Family Tricholomataceae
Genus Hygrocybe

Synonyms

Hygrocybe coccinea var. marchii (Bres.) Krieglst.
  in Krieglsteiner, Ahnert, Endt, Enderle & Ostrow, Beitr. Kenntn. Pilze Mitteleur. 13: 31 (2000)
Hygrophorus marchii Bres.
  Iconographia Mycologica 7: pl. 343 (1928)
Pseudohygrocybe marchii (Bres.) Kovalenko
  Mikol. Fitopatol. 22(3): 208 (1988)

Common names

Waxy cap
Hygrophore de March (French)
Kerbrandiger Orangesaftling (German)
Aranysárga nedűgomba (Hungarian)

Description

Cap: 2-4 cm diameter, red or orange-yellow, convex, becoming flattened or centrally depressed in age; radially fibrillose; flesh yellow.
Stem: 3-6 cm tall x 0.3-0.6 cm diameter; orange-yellow, more pallid towards the base; flesh yellow and stuffed.
Gills: adnate to decurrent, broad, distant; pallid when young, becoming more orange in age, yellowish at the edges.
Spores: hyaline, smooth, ellipsoid, non-amyloid, 6-10 x 4-6 µm.
Spore print: white.
Odor and taste: not distinctive.
Edibility: inedible.
Habitat: found in small troops among short grass; late summer to fall; uncommon.

Medicinal properties

Antitumor effects

Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of H. marchii and administered intraperitoneally into white mice at a dosage of 300 mg/kg inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich solid cancers by 90% and 100%, respectively (Ohtsuka et al., 1973).

References

Ohtsuka S, Ueno S, Yoshikumi C, Hirose F, Ohmura Y, Wada T, Fujii T, Takahashi E.
Polysaccharides having an anticarcinogenic effect and a method of producing them from species of Basidiomycetes.
UK Patent 1331513, 26 September 1973.