Lilac Bonnet

Description

The lilac bonnet is a small, delicate mushroom with a cap 2–6 cm across and a thin, hollow, brittle stem. Young fruiting bodies are lilac or violet, but with age they fade and become whitish, yellowish, pink, brown, even reddish, so colour does not allow it to be recognised. The gills are whitish or greyish, often with a pink or violet tint, and the flesh smells and tastes like radish.

It is very common: it grows from spring to autumn in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, in scrub, on meadows and grassland.

It is easily confused with the poisonous rosy bonnet and with the amethyst deceiver. It contains muscarine, so it should not be collected for eating. A radish smell is not enough to consider a mushroom safe.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 2–6 cm; at first convex to bell-shaped, then spread out. Surface bare. Young fruiting bodies lilac-violet; with age the colour changes greatly (whitish, yellowish, pink-brown, reddish). Colour is not sufficient to identify the species.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills moderately crowded, sinuately attached to the stem, whitish to greyish-white, often tinged pink or violet; near the stem often joined by anastomoses (connecting veins).

Stem

Height 4–10 cm, thickness 0.4–0.6 cm, cylindrical, hollow, brittle. Surface shiny, smooth or with fine hairs, whitish or in the colour of the cap. No ring.

Flesh

Watery, whitish or greyish. Smell and taste distinctly radish-like. It must not be tasted — the species is poisonous.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores long elliptical to almost cylindrical, weakly amyloid or non-amyloid, smooth, 6–10 × 3–4 µm. Basidia 4-spored.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph. Accumulates boron and produces weak bioluminescence visible at night.

Distribution. Widespread, on all continents except Antarctica. In Europe the northern limit of its range runs through Iceland and northern Scandinavia; in Central Europe it is one of the most frequent mushrooms, in Poland very common. Grows in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, in scrub, and also on meadows, fallow land and grassland. Not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. From spring to autumn.

What can it be confused with?

• Mycena rosea (rosy bonnet) — Poisonous; often has the same pink colouring and is morphologically very similar. It does not occur in coniferous forests; in deciduous forests it is hard to tell apart from M. pura. The radish smell is a clue, but it must not be tested by tasting.
• Mycena pelianthina (blackedge bonnet) — Has darker gills and more darkly coloured gill edges.
• Laccaria amethystina (amethyst deceiver) — Sometimes confused with the lilac bonnet; detailed differences: no data.
• Clitocybe nuda, Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis, Mycena purpureofusca — Similar; detailed differences: no data.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• It produces weak bioluminescence visible at night.
• It accumulates the element boron.
• The colour of the fruiting bodies changes with age from lilac-violet to whitish, yellowish, pink, brown, even reddish, so colour alone is not an identifying feature.
• The Polish name "grzybówka fioletowawa" was introduced by Władysław Wojewoda in 1987, who considered the earlier names incorrect.