Waxcap

You know it's autumn when you start seeing lots of fungi blips. I spotted this beauty recently. I'm not much of a mycologist, but Pennybun generously helped me to identify it as a waxcap (Hygrocybe spp).

Waxcaps are interesting because they only grow on nutrient poor soils such as unimproved grassland which hasn't had nitrogen tipped on it. This habitat is in decline and so are waxcaps, now some of our rarer (and most beautiful) fungi. Waxcaps serve as an indicator of a rapidly declining flora which can't tolerate agricultural interference. This canary-yellow toadstool is one of the canaries in our environmental coalmine.