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Wood Blewit

Lepista nuda

Months

Habitat

Close up of a Wood Blewit mushroom. You can see the blue purple cap against the leaves of the forest floor in the background.

How to Identify Wood Blewit

CapInitially a blue-purple, turning a light brown with age. They have a smooth surface, and reach 6-15cm in diameter.
GillsSimilar to the cap, the gills start off lilac in colour and fade to light brown over time
StemThe stem is sturdy, between 1.5-2.5cm in diameter, and is lilac in colour
SporesPale pink-light brown
SmellA faint aniseed smell

 

A close up of the underside of a Wood Blewit Cap. You can see the purple gills, edge of the cap and part of the stem, against a leaf covered forest floor.

Where to find them? 

This mushroom is found amongst leaf litter in deciduous and mixed woodland, also occasionally under hedgerows, in permanent pasture and on compost heaps.  It is sometimes seen growing in circles, known as ‘fairy rings’. 

Did you know? 

Lepista is derived from the Latin meaning goblet, and is a reference to the concave, funnel-shaped caps seen in mature specimens of this fungus. 

Don’t mistake it with

May be confused with the Field blewit Lepista saeva which has a violet-blue coloured stem, but which does not have the same colouring to the gills or the cap. The Goatcheese webcap Cortinarius camphoratus is similar in certain respects, although rare. The Bruising webcap, Cortinarius purpurascens shares the purple-brown cap, purple stem and gills, but may be distinguished by its markedly-swollen stem base and the rust colour left by the spores on its gills. 

Other species

Unfortunately we don’t have a page on that species yet, but we’re always adding new species of plants, fungi and lichens, so make sure to check back again soon! In the meantime, why not explore some of the other species we have?