Clitocybe/Lepista Nuda (Blewit's)

[Lazlo]

I found these growing along the edge of a wooded area in some decomposing leaves and sticks. The temperatures were nice and comfortable also. They have a nice purple coloring to them and bruise purplish also. These have been refrigerated for 2 days until I felt like eating them, so their bruising has subsided it seems. I'm waiting for them to warm up and then i'll see if the bruising will show up for a picture. The flavor of these is excellent! If you find some, i'd definately recommend keeping some for yourself.





If you look around the edges of the flesh just beneath the skin, you can see a discoloring. This will turn purple in color when damaged or cut. It's a really neat characteristic. But these are barely bruising now. I'm guessing it's because of the refrigerating process. We'll see if they bruise once they warm back up to room temperatures.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Nice find! Great pics, too. I love the cut-aways and print.

I love Blewit's pickled with garlic and olives. The buttons keep a great texture and flavor without absorbing too much brine.

The larger ones are wonderful sauteed. Those would make a fantastic risoto, maybe with a little crispy bacon.

[Lazlo]

Yeah, I thought the print and cut away would be useful. Although the damn bruising isn't occuring anymore. I'll have to go to the spot to snag another one so I can share that feature with everyone. It's really pretty! The mushrooms are even a slight purplish color as well.

That bacon idea sounds good. I may try that tonight with a tenderloin of pork I have.

[Bobcat]

Just so other people know, you can't eat Blewitts raw. They are thought (is this proven?) to have a blood thinner in them, I believe. Or something like that. They are an interesting species for their flavor, color, raw inedibility and most interestingly in their ability to seek and destroy opposing organisms.

http://mushroomexpert.com/clitocybe_nuda.html

[Hippie3]

Ron Meyers
When I noticed a large fruiting of fungi on top of my compost pile, I thought I knew what I had found before I examined it. A close inspection, especially of the gills and stem, confirmed my initial impression: I had nice meal of Clitocybe nuda, or "blewits."
If you were asked to name the dishes you have consumed which included lilac or lavender colored ingredients, you might have to think for a while. But if you had ever had a meal of sautéed blewits, you would probably remember immediately. Clitocybe nuda is a highly regarded edible, but should not be eaten raw. Older specimens may have a bad flavor. See the comments below for help distinguishing the blewit from its look-alikes.
The first crop I picked I made into a cream sauce for pasta. It was a good recipe, but the shallots overshadowed the taste of the mushrooms. So when I had a second fruiting I simply sliced them vertically and sautéed them in butter. The distinctive taste of the mushrooms was enhanced, and it was a real treat. I harvested four crops in a month from a year-old pile of grass clippings and leaves.
Description:
Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, gregariously, or in clusters; in woods, brush, gardens, under conifers or hardwoods, on lawns, around and on compost piles, or wherever there is organic debris; widely distributed; late summer on into the fall and winter. A single mycelium may produce several crops a year, so check your patches regularly!
Cap: 4-15 cm; convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming broadly convex to nearly flat, or with an uplifted, often wavy margin in age; surface smooth, slightly sticky and shiny when moist, somewhat shiny to dull when dry; sometimes finely cracked over the center; purple, or purplish with brown to grayish shades when fresh; fading to brownish, flesh-colored, tan, or paler.
Gills: Attached to the stem--sometimes by a notch--or beginning to run down the stem; close or crowded; pale lavender to violet or lilac; sometimes grayish purple when fresh; fading to buff, pinkish-buff or brownish in age.
Stem: 2-5 cm long; 1-3 cm thick at apex; equal or often enlarged at the base; dry; finely hairy; pale purple or colored like the gills; becoming brownish in age; base often covered with downy purple mycelium.
Flesh: Thick; rather soft; purplish to lilac-buff.
Taste: Not distinctive, pleasant, or slightly bitter; odor fragrant.
Spore Print: Pinkish.
Microscopic Details: Spores 5-8 x 3-5 µ; elliptical; roughened or sometimes smooth; inamyloid.
(Fries) Bigelow & Smith, 1969. (Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991; Lincoff, 1992; Bessette, Bessette & Fischer, 1997.) Herb. Kuo 10129601, 10090305.
Clitocybe nuda is also known as Lepista nuda. There are numerous synonyms and former names, including Tricholoma nudum, Rhodopaxillus nudus, and Tricholoma personatum. Recent DNA research is inconclusive on the separation of Lepista from Clitocybe (see Moncalvo et al., 2002). "Blewit" apparently derives from “blue hat,” even though the mushroom is more purple than blue.
While there are other purple mushrooms, some of which are poisonous, they can be fairly easily distinguished from Clitocybe nuda. Inocybe species have brown gills and spores when mature. Purple Cortinarius species have a cortina when young, and have rusty-brown spores. Mycena pura is small and slender, and has white spores. Purplish Laccaria species like Laccaria amethystina have tough, fibrous stems; they are white-spored and edible. Bluish Entoloma and Leptonia species are not nearly as purple.