Home / Violet & amethyst agarics / TM0086
Weathered violet agarics on a bank
Cortinarius or Laccaria Genus
Angles captured. 5 frames of one subject.
Morphology
Several fruitbodies at different stages, caps 3–6 cm, lilac to greyish-violet, some faded almost to buff. One mature cap shows distinctly rusty-brown gills from below.
Habitat & substrate
Leaf litter and rotting wood along a bank under mixed hardwood.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Laccaria has thick, distant, waxy gills; Cortinarius thinner and closer with a rusty print. Several frames here show close thin gills with a dull pinkish-brown cast, favouring Cortinarius.
To confirm this identification
A single spore print settles every violet entry in the guide at once.
Notes
The rusty gills on the oldest fruitbody are a maturing Cortinarius spore deposit.
Found at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Princeton, MA on Saturday, 8 August 2026 at 10:15. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Violet cortCortinarius sp. · Jul 31Moderate–high
Violet agarics on a red eroded bankCortinarius or Laccaria · Aug 6Moderate
Violet agaric in pine litterCortinarius 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