Yet more maybe blewits

[lauriek]

Yet more I'm afraid, subtly different to the others but I initially thought these might be blewits of some sort, these are growing in my garden! (Which has mixed woodland, mainly deciduous, to the rear, and a large conifer hedge...




Any tips appreciated!

[NickCantle]

They look like Lepista Nuda alright

[Stewy]

Wood Blewits, you lucky ..............................!

[lauriek]

So we came to the conclusion that these, and the ones in this thread;

Unknown fungus, thought blewit but changed mind!

...were both wood blewits, but these have browny caps and the ones in the other thread have very purply caps, is that variation normal?

These two sets of photos were taken in different places, the ones in this thread are in my garden but the ones in the other thread are in some woods about 100yds away...

Cheers!

[NickCantle]

In my experience, Field Blewits are more buff and tend to be larger...and, well, like growing in fields. Wood Blewits tend to be smaller and more purple and grow, yes you guessed it, in wood...and probably other places too

[Steve Wurzel]

Be careful if you intend to eat them, they are very similar to Cortinarius violaceus The Imperial which is usually listed as edible, but one book I own lists it as poisonous, in fact I don't yet know enough to separate it apart from Wood Blewit (they seem to be very similar in photos) or if it truly is poisonous, I don't know if anyone here has the info?

Cortinarius violaceus - Google Image Search

[NickCantle]

I'm not sure if it's specifically poisonous but they have to warn against consumption of the Cortinarius genus in general due to the fact that they all contain toxins. In Phillips, it's in actual fact stated as Edible, but as aforementioned, Cortinarius aren't a wise culinary choice. Apart from it being pretty rare in Britain, the gills of Cortinarius violaceus are dark brown to dark purple whereas the Blewits/Wood Blewits' gills are seemingly light shades of lilac, buff and flesh coloured. One other key factor with Cortinarius violaceus is the fact that the spores are Rusty brown as are the majority of the Cortinarius genus. The Edible Lepista have white and pale pink spores.

Nick

[Fungus Ken]

In my experience you are much more likely to confuse Lepista nuda with Cortinarius purpurascens. For example, look at the picture on Roger Phillips' website. It is decribed as poisonous/suspect ... which probably means whoever he consulted didn't really know about its edibility. But, as Nick points out, a quite check of the spore colour would resolve the issue of Cortinarius v. Lepista.

Cortinarius violaceous has a very different cap which is felty or scurfy and you would be unlikely to mistake it for a blewit.

Ken

[lauriek]

I tried to do a couple of spore prints last year for the first time (not this species, can't remember what it was now!) but nothing seemed to come out... I presumed I'd picked the specimens too late. Is there anything else I could have done wrong, or do you have any other tips for the best way to do this?

I just stuck the caps on some paper, gills down, and put that in the microwave overnight (not turned on)

[Stewy]

I'm not an expert but a glass over the cap might help possibly?

[Fungus Ken]

If the mushroom is too young, too old or too dry you won't get any spores. It can be a bit hit and miss. Increasing the humidity seems to help - so putting it in the microwave (not switched on) as you suggest could be one option - not one I've tried myself, I have to say.

I tend to put an upturned plastic pot over the cap, and sometimes adding a few drops of water to the top of the cap can help to increase the humidity and persuade a reluctant mushroom to drop enough spores to detect the colour. I do put the mushroom cap, or a piece of the cap, on paper but I also put a glass microscope slide on the paper because this makes it easier to scrape the spores together to see the colour.

Ken

[lauriek]

Aha, thanks for the tips guys, sounds like I should have covered it. I'll have another go with something this weekend!!

[Leif]

Cortinariius violaceous is fairly rare, and a rather beautiful fungus, and even if edible, should IMO be left to live in peace. It is said to smell of sandalwood, though to my nose they have the same pleasant smell as Cauliflower Fungus.

It is easy to distinguish Wood Blewits from ostensibly similar Cortinarius species as they have rubbery flesh, and the cap will flex quite easily. But they really are quite different when seen side by side. If in doubt, don't eat.

[Fungus Ken]

... if only they always grew side by side with species you could confuse them with it would make life a lot easier.

Or perhaps not on second thoughts. You might be more likely to poison yourself perhaps.

Ken

[Leif]

Originally Posted by Fungus Ken

... if only they always grew side by side with species you could confuse them with it would make life a lot easier.

Or perhaps not on second thoughts. You might be more likely to poison yourself perhaps.

Ken

It would be even better if they had little signs on top marked "Tasty" or "Deadly" ...

Well the deadly poisonous Clitocybe dealbata often grows alongside the edible Oudimansiella oreades.

[juliejam]

Thanx to all for the above ...very useful information...Ive been coming across many Lepista nuda...The Wood Blewit..today found up to around thirty of them around the bottom of yet another Redwood tree..

Julie

[NickCantle]

You're so lucky

[lauriek]

Aha I tried doing some more spore prints overnight, from a selection of shrooms I found yesterday.

Three russulas, one of which I thought was a Charcoal Burner, the other two were dark reddish purply and I've no idea on(!), a couple of waxcaps, and a clouded agaric.

I trimmed the stems, put them all the caps on a glass plate, and then dripped some water on each one and left them in the microwave overnight - got good spore prints from all of them, but they all look white, apart from one of the purply russulas which looked a little creamy. I suspect adding the water was key, although I tried to do it on a bunch of 'just fully developed' specimens... The amount of spores which came out of the potential Charcoal Burner was quite impressive!!

I'm going to try to scrape some of them up and look under the microscope, see if I can see any detail.

I suspect I need a higher power objective though as my current setup will only go to 600x (15x eyepiece, 40x objective)...

[lauriek]

Yes could definitely do with more magnification, I was wrong actually, the strongest eyepiece is 12.5x so I have 500x magnification available atm. Looked at the spores from the russula and they look like tiny spheres, but I don't know if thats because they are spherical or because I don't have the magnification to see any surface detail!! Must have a word with Brunel about a 100x oil immersion lens!!

[Fungus Ken]

x400 magnification (or x500 in your case - although the x12.5 eyepiece doesn't actually give any greater resolution than a x10 eyepiece, even though the image is a little bigger because it's the objective lens that counts) can be OK for some species with large spores, where the surface detail is not important in separating species.

For genera like Lactarius and Russula you really do need to go up to x1000 to see the detail but you also need to use a stain. Because the ornamentation is amyloid it stains blue with Melzer's Reagent.

Ken