Plenty of purple – The Amethyst Deceiver

The family of Deceivers are a funny lot. It may take a while before you get used to them. But that’s another story for another post. The very common appearance of this lilac purple beauty is the focus of this post alone…

Amethyst DeceiverThis is the Amethyst Deceiver (Laccaria amethystina) can be found in troops on the ground with conifers and broad leafed trees, in fact all types of woodland. Their colour strength changes depending on the weather conditions. For example, when wet or damp, it’s quite possible you may walk past many of them as their violet colour deepens and merges into the undergrowth background. I must have walked by quite a few as they’re extremely common in autumn. As they age, the colour fades to a pale buff.

They are a very pretty, small mushroom and people who notice them always take a second glance. I’m not surprised as it has such a distinctive and beautiful appearance, even though on the small side!

Their stems are tough and sometimes bent or twisted and the cap can be variable in appearance – sometimes perfectly convex and often wavy edged and irregular (see the pictures). The gills are widely spaced and if you take a spore print – it will be white. (How to make a mushroom spore print).

Amethyst Deceiver - Lilac/purple gillsI’ve always found the spore deposit result of great interest because I have seen pictures of a very similar toadstool – The Lilac Fibrecap. The Fibrecaps (Inocybe genus) are a nasty bunch of buggers and most of them are poisonous, and one at least being deadly. But in this case our only concern is the similar Lilac Fibrecap. It isn’t deadly but it’s one to avoid anyway. This is where the spore print can really help. The Lilac Fibrecap has a ‘snuff’ brown spore print and our lovely Amethyst Deceiver has a white spore print. Thank the Heavens for spore prints.

So, as you’ve guessed, the Amethyst Deceiver is indeed edible but seriously lacks in flavour. It can be added with a load of other species of tasty fungal treats you might have, but on it’s own it’s not worth it. I believe it’s very good for adding colour to extravagant salads. Hmm! worth a go I suppose.

One more thing before I sign off – Another similar species is the Lilac Bell Cap or Lilac Bonnet (Mycena Pura) and contains the poison ‘muscarine’ although it’s not deadly in this specimen, in fact I have read one specialist book claiming that this mushroom/toadstool is edible! It does has a white spore print, but don’t despair too much. In comparison, it is a little larger, the gills more crowded and the cap more bell shaped. The colour varies from lighter shades of lilac and pink, although younger specimens may appear darker in this colour. The ‘key’ giveaway is that the cap edge is much more grooved (striate at the margin as they say) – so take care in checking.

Amethyst Deceiver

The Amethyst Deceiver can have an irregular shaped or perfectly shaped concave cap. It can dry to a pale violet colour as seen in the right hand image.

7 replies
  1. Ana
    Ana says:

    Hmmm, we might have a couple of these… So hard to identify! Our ones were found in leaf litter on the edge of mixed woodland. Two of them, sprouting out of the same base. Definitely lilac, but pale and very pretty, they were the same shape as the middle one in your pictures. I thought they might have been lilac bonnets, but the stem is not smooth. Any other possibilities?

    Reply
  2. Llinos
    Llinos says:

    Thank you. That was a really useful blog as I came across these mushrooms recently in a beech wood. The blog helped me to understand and identify what I was looking at. It was a beautiful blog and made interesting to read. Fab ?

    Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] a strong voice within me saying – all will be ok, keep on going. I came across a purple mushroom Amethyst deceiver – striking, delicate with such beautiful colour. I was transfixed in the presence of the spirit […]

  2. […] You may have also come across a close ‘purple’ relative of the Deceiver, namely the Amethyst Deceiver, an exceptionally attractive little mushroom. See my post on it […]

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    […]The Mushroom Diary – Wild UK Mushroom Hunting Blog » Blog Archive » Plenty of purple – The Amethyst Deceiver[…]…

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