Unidentified Fungus - ID help needed, please!

[solus]

I haven't been out looking for fungi for ages and wasn't exactly looking for any when this one (fungus!) attracted my attention while I was crawling about under a Rhododendron bush in a shady area of Armadale Castle Gardens on the Isle of Skye trying to photograph the flowers!

In fact, I nearly knelt on it but just saw the rather prettily-coloured pinky-lilac-bluey dome in the moss in time: I pulled away the moss in order to see the stipe and once I'd photographed the thing in situ pulled it up - it appeared to be growing in the soil with the stipe tapering almost to a point at the tip. I did smell it - just rather "mushroomy" and there was no ring, but apart from that I didn't note anything else (in my defence, the midges were making a meal of me at the time and I was keen to get out into the open!).

It was 15th June and the weather had been fairly dry for a while with only a few light scattered showers in the week before. This was the only specimen I noticed and as I said, that by accident as it was barely visible above the ground.







I was wondering about a Russula but I'm probably wayy off the mark - again!
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks!

[mollisia]

Hello Solus,

you are perfect right with Russula.
The colour mix of green, violet, rose and bluegray is typical for Russula cyanoxantha, but also for some other species of the Griseinae (R. ionochlora e.g., but also the newly described R. palumbina). The bad news is, that if it is not cyanoxantha, you will need a microscope to identify the species. The good news is, all are edible in this group

best regards,
Andreas

[solus]

Many thanks for your quick reply, Andreas!

Personally, I'm not bothered whether these things are edible or not as I have no intention of eating any fungus that doesn't come from the shop!

I'm very happy to have got the Russula bit right all by myself.

[mollisia]

Originally Posted by solus

I have no intention of eating any fungus that doesn't come from the shop!

Tstststs, you don't mean the dutch coffee shops, do you!

best regards,
Andreas

[solus]

Now that's just being naughty, Andreas!!!


I'll have you know my (food) mushrooms come from a very good local Farm Shop which gets them from a local grower. So there!
Over and... (Yup, that's blatant advertising!)