Snowy Waxcap

Basidiocarps are agaricoid. The cap is convex at first, becoming flat or slightly depressed when expanded, up to 7.5 centimetres (3 in) across. The cap surface is smooth, waxy when damp, hygrophanous and somewhat translucent with a striate margin, white to ivory (rarely with ochre to brownish tints). The lamellae (gills) are waxy, cap-coloured, and decurrent (widely attached to and running down the stipe). The stipe (stem) is up to 7 cm long, smooth, cylindrical or tapering to the base, cap-coloured, and waxy when damp. The flesh is white with a mild smell and bitter to acrid flavor. The spore print is white, the spores (under a microscope) smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid, about 7.0 to 8.5 by 4.5 to 5.0 μm. The species is sometimes parasitized by the mould Marquandomyces marquandi, which colours the lamellae violet.

Similar species. Cuphophyllus russocoriaceus is very similar in appearance, but can be distinguished in the field by its strong smell of sandalwood. C. berkeleyi (sometimes considered a white form of C. pratensis) is also similar, but its fruit bodies are typically larger and non-hygrophanous. C. angustifolius is stockier.

The snowy waxcap is widespread throughout the north temperate zone, occurring in Europe, northern Asia, North America, and Australia. Like other waxcaps, it grows in old, unimproved, short-sward grassland (pastures and lawns) in Europe, but in woodland elsewhere. Recent research suggests waxcaps are neither mycorrhizal nor saprotrophic, but may be associated with mosses.