I went into Landcare Research last week and looked again at all the Hygrocybe cantharellus collections provided by or ID by me and two of these were this Hygrocybe with cheilocystidia. Updated there records but it could be a long time before this is reflected in there website.

A description made from the type – one single collection – may not cover the whole variation of the species. But it is also described with a yellow to orange cap, and associated with Sphagnum..

Probably not dorothyae then, but this beautiful Hygrocybe deserves a name!

The presence of cheilocystidia eliminates H. cantharellus but Iam not convinced these are H. dorothyae ether as spores are to big and wrong shape.

H. dorothyae spores are 8.7-10 × 7-8 um broadly ellipsoid.

I just examined this again under the microscope,
Spores: 10-12.5 × 6-7.5 microns, ovoid.
Cheilocystidia: conspicuous, 70-75 × 12-15 microns, narrowly clavate.

I looked up the description of H. dorothyae which has a larger fruiting body and fads to orange/yellow with age. This species is easily separated from H. cantharellus which has no cheilocystidia were H. dorothyae has.

I looked through my photos of H. cantharellus and have one that shows red gill edges but only on young fruiting body’s the older ones don’t. So It will be interesting to see if cheilocystidia are present Michael collection.

If this is H. dorothyae I think this is the first record of that species in New Zealand.

From a distance I thought this cluster was a piece of rubbish until I got a bit closer, also most red mushrooms in New Zealand are very small, the pileus was 15-35mm in diameter.

in my opinion. Though this is not my special field I have to admit.

This is what I thought and was my reason for leaving the naming Hygrocybe sp.

Concolorous edge means concolorous with the rest of the gills. I have never seen H. cantharellus with a red gill edge, or any such description of it.

concolorous with the pileus is what I understand that it means

The only reason I suggested Hygrocybe sp was due to the red margins of the lamellae, the descriptions for all described species of scarlet Hygrocybe in New Zealand mention concolorous edges, does this mean concolorous with the pileus?