A cup fungus that develops partly underground as a whitish hollow ball, then splits from the top into five to ten pointed rays, forming a crown up to 12 cm across with a lilac to violet inner surface. It accumulates arsenic to exceptionally high levels and has caused severe poisonings, including a death. A 2024 study found that the name covered a complex of at least eleven species; S. crassa, the name used in older North American guides, is now treated as a separate, mainly pine-associated European species.
Poisonous, potentially deadly; do not eat. Once considered edible, it has caused severe poisonings, including one recorded death (Jura Mountains, 1920). It hyperaccumulates arsenic, mostly as methylarsonic acid, often above 1 g per kg dry weight. The toxic agent has not been identified.
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Habitat
Under humus on the forest floor, often in mountains, frequently in late spring or early summer near melting snow; under conifers or broadleaf trees such as beech, mainly on calcareous soils. Probably ectomycorrhizal.
Distribution
Europe (recorded in 23 countries and red-listed in 14), North America (British Columbia to Michigan and New York, south to Veracruz, Mexico), and Palestine and Asian Turkey (Wikipedia). The 2024 study found at least seven additional species in North America, so North American collections are probably not S. coronaria in the strict sense.
Characteristics
Fruitbody: at first a whitish to cream, hollow ball partly buried in soil, resembling a puffball or truffle; splits into 5-10 rays to form a crown up to 12 cm across. Inner surface: lilac-gray to violet, fading brownish lavender. Outer surface: white. Stem: absent or short and stubby. Flesh: white, thick, fragile. Odor and taste: generally not distinctive. Spores: smooth, ellipsoid with truncate ends, 11.5-20 x 5-9 um, usually with two large oil drops; asci blue in Melzer's reagent (Wikipedia).
