Wood Blewit

Description:

Also known as Lepista nuda, and sometimes given the common name "blewit," Clitocybe nuda is fairly easily recognized when fresh and young--but older specimens can be confused with many potential look-alikes. Gorgeous shades of lilac and lavender on the cap, gills, and stem fade quickly; the cap becomes brownish, and the gills and stem fade to buff. But this color transformation is one of the mushroom's distinguishing features, along with its pale pinkish spore print, its lack of a partial veil, and its tendency to grow in piles of organic debris ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/clitocybe_... )

Habitat:

location: North America, Europe edibility: Choice fungus colour: Violet or purple, Brown normal size: 5-15cm cap type: Convex to shield shaped flesh: Mushroom has distinct or odd smell (non mushroomy) spore colour: Pink habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on the ground Lepista nuda (Bull. ex Fr.) Cooke syn. Tricholoma nudum (Bull. ex Fr.) Kummer syn. Rhodopaxillus nudus (Bull. ex Fr.) Maire Violetter Rötelritterling Pied bleu, Rhodopaxille nu Wood Blewit. Cap 6–12cm across, flattened-convex becoming depressed and wavy, bluish lilac at first then more brownish, drying paler. Stem 50–90´15–25mm, often slightly bulbous at the base, bluish-lilac, fibrillose. Flesh thick, bluish-lilac. Taste and smell strongly perfumed. Gills crowded, bluish-lilac fading with age to almost buff. Spore print pale pink. Spores elliptic, minutely spiny, 6–8´4–5m. Habitat in woodland, hedgerows and gardens. Season autumn to early winter. Common. Edible – excellent. Distribution, America and Europe ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

Clitocybe nuda is probably the Bay Area's most common edible mushroom fruiting abundantly in urban parks and to a lesser extent in natural habitats. It is recognized by a purple to lilac, smooth, almost waxy, wavy-margined cap which fades to tan, the lack of a veil, a faint fragrant odor, and pale pinkish-buff spore print. Lilac-colored mycelium is often found at the base of blewits. Those collecting for the table should be aware of several other lilac to purple mushrooms that occur locally: Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis which can be told by its distinctly fibrous stipe, Mycena pura, a smaller mushroom with a striate cap margin and white spores, and Inocybe geophylla var. lilacina, also a small mushroom, which has brown spores and a green-corn odor. In addition, there are several violet to lilac-colored Cortinarius species, but all of these have a cob-web type of veil and rusty-brown spores ( http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Clito... ), ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... )