couple new things

[pumplinpen]

Today there were mostly a lot of small mushrooms in various shades of brown growing on rotting logs... but there was also this one, which I think is Amanita muscaria var. formosa/guessowii, found in a lawn under pine; as well as these two interesting purple eggs. The eggs were growing from a dead stump, danging from a short "tail." They seemed to have aged and I assumed they had missed the chance to grow up so I picked them as they were. Any ideas on what it would become?

[Dave W]

Here in PA the most common type of Amanita muscaria is variety guessowii. This one used to be called A. muscaria var. formosa. I don't know why the name was changed. I saw some yesterday, growing under Blue Spruce.

The eggs are stinkhorn eggs. Possibly Phallus impudicus, P. hadriani, or P. ravenelii. Years back, having read in Arora's "Mushrooms Demystified" that these are edible in the egg stage, I sliced and fried some. They were surprisingly tasty. Not that I'm recommending these. For one, while in the egg stage they may be difficult to ID to exact species. And these are probably not widely consumed. I just found it very interesting that what would eventually grow into a putrid stinkhorn could be enjoyed as food.

[pumplinpen]

Thanks, Dave. Every time I see stinkhorns I consider digging up some eggs to eat, but have never been daring enough to try it. Is it often they will form above ground like this? Today I found some more purple mushrooms which I'm unable to place in any group. They were growing from the ground, have a sort of sour, mealy smell, and somewhat hot unpleasant taste. They are 3 to 4 inches across. Stem is also lilac in color.

[vitog]

That looks like it could be one of the lilac colored Cortinarius species. A spore print could confirm that. A picture of the stem would also be helpful because Cortinarius stems often have rusty brown stains on remnants of the cortina.

[Dave W]

I'm guessing the purplish mushroom is an example of Lepista nuda, the Blewit. Stalk shows a whitish frosty-looking sheen on the upper part.

Like vitog says, a spore print would be very helpful here... Cortinarius rusty/brown, Lepista pale fleshy/pinkish.

[pumplinpen]

The spore print was fairly light, so the color is hard to identify. If it had dropped heavily it might look rusty, but as it is, it tends more towards fleshy. The stalk did have a frosted coating on it, rubbed off at the bottom from where I picked it. It was short and solid. I had been looking at cortinarius species, but the stem didn't have the exaggerated bulbous end.

[Cedric]

Looks like blewits to me. I cannot see the remnants of the veil. Rust coloured, if it were a Cortinarius.