A small, vivid purple mushroom with thick, widely spaced purple gills and a white spore print. When it dries it fades to buff and often looks two-toned, which makes it harder to recognize. It is mycorrhizal, mainly with beech and oaks.
Edible but not choice (Wikipedia). It can accumulate high levels of arsenic in polluted soils, so avoid collecting from contaminated ground. Dangerous look-alikes: the lilac Inocybe lilacina (formerly I. geophylla var. lilacina; muscarine; brown spore print, silky cap) and small purple Cortinarius species (cobwebby veil, rusty-brown spore print and rusty mature gills). Confirm a white spore print.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal, mainly with beech and oaks and other Fagales; solitary to scattered on the ground; late spring to fall. Also behaves as an 'ammonia fungus', fruiting abundantly after nitrogen enrichment of soil.
Distribution
Common in temperate Europe and Asia, and in eastern North America east of the Rocky Mountains under hardwoods (MushroomExpert). West Coast records belong to L. amethysteo-occidentalis. Purple Laccarias from Central and South America belong to other, morphologically similar species of the L. amethystina complex.
Characteristics
Cap: 0.5-3.5 cm, broadly convex to flat, often centrally depressed; bright grayish purple fading to buff. Gills: attached, rarely decurrent, distant, thick, waxy, dark purple. Stem: 1-7 cm long, 1-7 mm thick, fibrous, finely to coarsely hairy, colored like the cap, with lilac to whitish basal mycelium. Odor and taste: not distinctive. Spore print: white. Spores: 7-10 um, globose, with spines 1.5-3 um long (MushroomExpert).
