very distinctive fungus for id please

[the naturelover]

took these last december but depite its very distinctive looks cant quite pin a name down. it was growing in leaf litter on a grass verge between a road and a river. gills and stem are lilac as the top. its very large cap dia 200mm or so.
when youve picked yourself up off the floor from laughing can anyone help with id please. regards tn

[Chris Yeates]

the colour is astonishing - you haven't been cranking up saturation with an image processing program have you? ; but I can only think that this is a Lepista - almost certainly L. nuda

PS - can we have a moratorium on the "is this Lepista nuda / Lepista sordida?" debate this year?

[the naturelover]

again my thanks chris. this is genuine i dont mess with my photos only to reduce the size to get them on the site. cant see the point myself if its rubbish then i bin it but i admit my bin is very full. regards

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by the naturelover

again my thanks chris. this is genuine i dont mess with my photos only to reduce the size to get them on the site. cant see the point myself if its rubbish then i bin it but i admit my bin is very full. regards

that was a throwaway comment - I did mean it seriously

C

[SheffieldLass]

It doesn't look quite right as there is no sign of a ring zone, but Gomphidius roseus is that sort of pink when washed out a bit, and the gills on this do appear to be going greyish. Though aren't the gills usually whitish originally, not pink as those appear to be, though on closer inspection they do look to be white. I think there may well be some colour distortion on the photos though. It would need pine nearby too, or at least Suillus.

Melanie

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

It doesn't look quite right as there is no sign of a ring zone, but Gomphidius roseus is that sort of pink when washed out a bit, and the gills on this do appear to be going greyish. Though aren't the gills usually whitish originally, not pink as those appear to be, though on closer inspection they do look to be white. I think there may well be some colour distortion on the photos though. It would need pine nearby too, or at least Suillus.

Melanie

still thinking Lepista . . . Gomphidius is a very different beast . . .

C

[NickCantle]

Surely Lepista- classic structure in my (not as much as your ) experience!

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

still thinking Lepista . . . Gomphidius is a very different beast . . .

C

Yes, that's why I said it didn't look quite right . Mind you this doesn't look like typical Lepista either to me, colour aside. This looks a bit thin fleshed and a bit too waffy edged but ... well, fungi do as they please .

Off topic ... Isn't Gomphidius a gilled bolete? It has bolete type spores. The ones I've found recently have a thicker middle than this fungus. This is a bonafide Gomphidius roseus, with pine but I've not spotted any Suillus bovinus there though, yet ...


Melanie

[the naturelover]

as always my thanks for taking the time to help. tn