Wood Blewit - how to see spore colour?

[cowshill]

I'm fairly sure this is lepista nuda, the wood blewit, my first for this species if correct. Sorry I've had it a couple of days before photoing, so it's rather dried and the lavender colouring is fading.

So, assuming my ID is correct, my question is how to best see the pale pink spore colour? I placed a cap half on white paper and half on black. After 12 hours on the white paper I see nothing and on the black just a ghostly image that looks white to the naked eye. What should I be doing to identify the colour as pale pink?

- Jim

[Deb London]

I would have thought white paper would be best. The WB has an unmistakeable smell (not easy to describe). I don't know whether this is WB or not as I don't think it looks particularly like the ones I have, but I guess they vary.

[NickCantle]

I always think it smells like fruity yogurt

[Deb London]

It's a personal thing I think. To me, yes, fruity, but in a dairy-free sort of way.

[Bill S]

I found these at the weekend, very flora smell, very loosely attached to their substrate, pinkish spore print, about 8cm max cap diameter for the older specimens. The smell was described by various sniffers as like lavender or violets (fallible human brains fooled by the colous), but we settled on fruity.



I had exactly the same experience with my spore print as the original poster. In fact I'd go further and say that whenever I have tried to get a print from a species which I suspect has lilac or pink spores, I get a ghostly image on the black before anything on the white is evident. My guess is that the black provides better contrast for these pale spores and so they show up better, albeit with reduced colour rendition because of the dark background.

Does this sound familar to those regularly doing spore prints?

Coincidentally I also found what I think is one of the rarer species it is possible to confuse with Lepista nuda, I suspect this magnificent specimen to be Cortinarius violaceous but would be grateful if anyone could confirm. Cap was around 13cm, very wooly appearance on the top, remnants of the cortina on the stem and where one was overgrowing another there were masses of rusty spores on the lower cap. Should I report it to anyone (if so to whom), according to Philips it is Red List species? This was the best example.



Many thanks for any help and advice.

Cheers

Bill

[NickCantle]

I could cry with envy at that Cortinarius violaceus Bill. So so incredibly envious.

[cowshill]

I went back with my camera yesterday to shoot one of the same fungi in situ. Still trying to determine what species. They pull up a lot of moss and pine needles with the stem, as a blewit should, but I could not detect any smell.



It looks a lot different from the two-day-old dried up one at the start of this thread! Can anyone identify for sure?

- Jim