Cortinarius purpurascens    (Velen.) Hry 

common name(s) : Bruising Webcap, Purplish Cortinarius 

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

synonyms: Cortinarius eumarginatus, Phlegmacium purpurascens 

edibility : discard

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

The cap is violaceous brown, red-brown. The cap surface is smooth, viscid or sticky.

The stem is violaceous, bulbous.

The flesh is violaceous, turning red or slightly purple when exposed to air; its taste is mild; the odour is faint but pleasant, fruity or of cocoa powder; its texture is fibrous.

The gills are purple then rusty red, adnate, crowded . The spore print is rusty brown. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved and coniferous woods, on a rather acid, but also calcareous soil, with spruce, beech.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 10 cm (between 3 and 15 cm)
  height of stem approximately 9 cm (between 4 and 12 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 10 and 30 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming bright violet when in contact with TL4.

Distinctive features : cap surface brown, but flesh and stem violet coloured; violet gills, turning rusty; flesh turning red when exposed to air; marginate bulbous stem base; honey to sickly odour

Cortinarius purpurascens is quite rare and localised in the forest of Rambouillet, and is occasional, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Cortinarius purpurascens in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Cortinarius purpurascens in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18