Species flashcards

Description

Cap: 15 cm in diameter, hemispherical cap becomes convex over time, finally spreading. Its surface becomes wavy, bumpy. Its margin remains infolded for a long time. Surface smooth or softly silky sheen, ochre-grayish, whitish grayish when young, later pale grayish-brown.

Gills: Whitish, curving up to the stem. Can be pale grayish. Densely standing.

Stem: Thick, 3-6 cm long, 2-3 cm thick. Grayish-white base with violet-blue fibers, often with a sharp boundary in the upper third. Base club-shaped.

Flesh: Soft, thick in the cap, fibrous in the stem. Grayish. Pleasant smell and good-tasting mushroom.

Spore: White; 6-8 x 4.5-5 µm; elliptical, slightly granular.

Occurrence: Occurs in mountain and lowland meadows, pastures, ditch banks or forest edges. Prefers shrubberies, thick leaf litter and over-fertilized areas. Found from late summer until persistent frosts, but also occurs in early spring. Often appears in masses, common species in some areas of Hungary.

Edibility: Edible, good-tasting mushroom species.

Confusion: Similar to the poisonous radish-smelling mock mushroom, the not edible blue webcap, and the edible flowery blewit and wood blewit. The contrast of its bright purple stem and pale ochre cap is a good identifying feature, making it easily recognizable.

Note: saeva means wild, or fierce. It is a mystery why it got the fierce epithet, but the term wild might suit it.

Species description: The Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described it in 1818 as Agaricus personatus. In 1871, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke renamed this mushroom Lepista personata, and almost a century later, in 1960, the English mycologist Peter Darbishire Orton gave it the name Lepista saeva, which is the currently accepted scientific name.

Taxonomy

1. PhylumBasidiomycota
2. ClassAgaricomycetes
3. OrderAgaricales
4. FamilyTricholomataceae
5. GenusLepista

• Species: saeva
• Described by: (Fr.) P.D. Orton
• Hungarian name: lilatönkű pereszke
• Lifestyle: soil saprotroph
• Edibility: edible