Wood Blewit (lapista Clitocybe nuda)

These beautiful late autumn, winter mushrooms are a delight to find, often found with pines and in leaf litter not always in the woods despite their name, I often find them on the edges of wood land. Theyre a delicous addition to any dish, especially scrambled eggs or pasta, bu they also pickle well too,

Habitat
Grows often in rings on leaf litter

Identification features

Cap
Buff brown caps with a violet tinge, the surface of the cap is almost translucent and you can often see lines when maggots have nibbled the flesh, with age the cap can become wavy at the edge and funnel shaped.

Stem
The stem often has a faint vertical striated pattern leading down to a bulbous base which has often got fluffy white mycelium attached.

Gills
gills are a pale violet colour, crowded and sinuate (notched before attaching to the stem).

Smell
This mushroom has a slightly perfumy smell.

Spore print
Pale pinkish brown.

Known Hazards
Can cause gastric upset if not cooked

Look a likes
Violet webcap which has a cortina (web like veil) which mostly disappears at maturity but where it attaches to the stem the fine threads catch the spores and you can sometimes see a rusty brown ring. The spores are rusty brown and this is you big difference.

Edible Uses
Cooked well this mushroom is delicious, going well with pasta, soups, stews etc.

 Cultivation 

 Blewits are rotter's and the mycelium grows from leaf litter, so you can grow your own mushrooms from the base nubs that have all the fluffy mycelium and a bag of leaves. I add them to a bag of wet leaves and shake it to mix it all up, it it up and leave it in the garden for a few weeks, once all the leaves are covered in white mycelium your blewit bomb is made (this takes a few weeks depending on how many leaves you use and how many bases) this is when you find a leafy patch and scatter your mucelim all over the place. Leave it until the following blewit season (usually November) and hopefully you will have fruited a new patch)