Home / Violet & amethyst agarics / TM0032
Violet agaric in pine litter
Cortinarius or Laccaria Genus
Angles captured. One from above, then two low obliques showing the cap underside and stipe.
Morphology
Cap 3–4 cm, violet with a darker, slightly depressed centre, margin becoming wavy. Gills visibly violet-grey and moderately close. Stipe pale lilac-white, cylindrical.
Habitat & substrate
Deep white-pine needle litter with scattered oak leaves, level ground under conifer cover.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Two genera stay in play. Laccaria amethystina and L. ochropurpurea have thick, widely spaced, waxy gills; Cortinarius has thinner, closer gills and a rusty spore print. Frames #4233, #4234 and #4243 show gills that are close and thin, with a distinctly pinkish-brown cast suggesting a rusty deposit — which points to Cortinarius. The blewit (Collybia nuda, long Lepista nuda; pale pinkish print) and Laccaria ochropurpurea are both common violet lookalikes here and stay on the list until a print exists.
To confirm this identification
A print from this collection settles this collection. The violet entries span four sites and three months; treating them as one species is exactly the assumption a print exists to test. Rusty brown = Cortinarius, white = Laccaria, pale pink = blewit.
Found at Elm St area, Leominster, MA on Thursday, 6 August 2026 at 10:38. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Violet cortCortinarius sp. · Jul 31Moderate
Violet agarics on a red eroded bankCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agaric, collected and examinedCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agarics scattered on a hillsideCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agaric beside a mossy logCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agarics along a fallen logCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agarics on a mossy decaying logCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 8Moderate
Large violet agaric by a fallen logCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 8Moderate