Mushroom and Toadstools / How to Distinguish Easily the Differences Between Edible and Poisonous Fungi

Chapter 18: Purple Cobweb-Mushroom. Fig. 12.

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About This Book

A practical field guide that helps readers separate edible from poisonous fungi through clear descriptions and nature-based illustrations of dozens of species. It supplies indices of common and scientific names, engraved plates of twenty-nine edible and thirty-one poisonous species, and short diagnostic notes on appearance, habitat, and handling. Introductory remarks discuss safe collecting and eating practices, such as choosing fresh specimens, avoiding overconsumption, and caution for beginners. The author emphasizes careful comparison with the plates, offers to identify specimens sent for inspection, and relates occasional personal cautions from earlier mistakes. The volume mixes botanical observation with culinary advice to encourage informed, cautious use of wild fungi.

Purple Cobweb-Mushroom. Fig. 12.

(Cortinarius [Inoloma] violaceus.)420.

This is one of the best-marked of all edible fungi, and at the same time one of the very best for esculent purposes. It cannot be called common, although I have often found it close to London. It appears to principally grow in open places in woods. When young, it looks like a bright purple silk ball in the grass, and when gathered the bulbous stem is almost as large as the top itself. There is always a cottony web, like cobweb (which represents the ring), stretching from the edge of the pileus to the stem, and this web soon takes its colour from the red spores, which are plentifully produced, colouring the gills and part of the stalk a red colour, very similar in tint to the rust of iron; when cut, the flesh is of a subdued lilac tint, and firm.

Broiled with a steak, this is a most exquisitely rich luxury, much resembling the meadow mushroom in flavour, but altogether firmer, and more meaty and substantial. I am always glad to find this species, and it is next to impossible to mistake it for any other.