Cortinarius alboviolaceus    (Pers.:Fr.) Fr. 

common name(s) : Pearly Webcap, Mauve-tinted Cortinarius 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Agaricomycetidae/Agaricales/Cortinariaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Agaricomycetideae/Cortinariales/Cortinariaceae/Cortinarieae [sub-genus:Sericeocybe]  

synonyms: Sericeocybe alboviolaceus 
(unconfirmed synonyms: Inoloma alboviolaceus, Inoloma alboviolaceum)  

edibility : discard

photo gallery of  Cortinarius alboviolaceus
photo gallery of  Cortinarius alboviolaceus potential confusions with  Cortinarius alboviolaceus toxicity of Cortinarius alboviolaceus genus Cortinarius  

The cap is pale lilac white then pale brown, with a central umbo. The cap surface is smooth, not viscid nor sticky.

The stem is white to violaceous, bulbous, with a ring zone (remnants of blueish-white cortina).

The flesh is pale lilac-white, unchanging; its taste is faint or bitter; the odour is faint; its texture is fibrous.

The gills are pale lilac then brown, rather crowded . The spore print is rusty brown. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved (sometimes coniferous) woods, on a rather acid soil, most of the time with birch, also with oak, beech, hornbeam, chestnut.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 6 cm (between 3 and 10 cm)
  height of stem approximately 9 cm (between 5 and 14 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 13 mm (between 8 and 20 mm)

Distinctive features : Pale lilac colour; cap with broad umbo (giving it a similar look to British Army's WWI Brodie helmet); stem slightly club-shaped; flesh blue in stem towards top; rather persistent cortina

Cortinarius alboviolaceus is occasional and widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is frequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Cortinarius alboviolaceus in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Cortinarius alboviolaceus in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18