Bruising Webcap
The Bruising Webcap, scientifically known as Cortinarius purpurascens, is a mushroom found primarily in coniferous and mixed woodlands across Europe and North America. It is characterized by its striking color changes upon handling, which can include a purplish hue that may turn brown with age. While it is considered edible, it has a bitter taste, making it less desirable for consumption. Caution is advised as some similar mushrooms can be toxic. For identification, look for its lilac/purple fibrillose cap and the presence of a cortina or web covering the gills.
Scientific Name – Cortinarius / Thaxterogaster purpurascens
Common Names:
Bruising Webcap (EN), Cap Gweog Cleisiol (CY), ZasÅ‚onak PurpurowiejÄ…cy (PL), BÃborlila Pókhálósgomba (HU)
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Cap
6- 10 cm. Has a lilac/purple fibrillose cap that turns brown with age although the cap can appear brown when young.
Gills
When young the gills are covered by a spider web like structure called a cortina which soon breaks up and can be completely absent on older mushrooms. Under the cortina the gills are fairly thick and start lilac/purple turning to orange/brown when covered in spores. Not too crowded an emarginate, joined to the stem but notched slightly beforehand.
Cortina / Veil
The cortina starts almost white to lilac but becomes orange/brown when covered in spores.
Stem
7-10 cm long, 1.5-3 cm diameter. The stem has a swollen base and is lilac to purple. When older the stem usually has an orange band around it caused by the spores sticking to what is left of the cortina where it was joined to the stem.
Bulbous Base
Has a thick bulbous base when very young, as shown, but the base does not increase much in size as the rest of the mushrooms grows from it but older mushrooms usually still have a swollen base.
Flesh
The flesh starts white to lilac but can bruise to darker or brown when the flesh is exposed for a short time.
Habitat
Deciduous or mixed woodland.
Possible Confusion
Can look very like the tasty Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda), pictured, but usually has some of the cortina left hanging from the edge of the cap or an orange/brown band around the stem.
Also looks like other purple Cortinarius mushrooms and when older with a brown cap could be mistaken for some of the poisonous species.
Taste / Smell
Bitter.
Other Facts
The cortina translates as curtain and is referring to the partial veil covering the gills of the young mushrooms.
As they don’t taste good and could be mistaken for other species of Cortinarius, some of which are deadly poisonous, we don’t recommend any of the Webcaps for consumption.
