Guessing it's a Cort, but a few oddities

[ChefsWild]

Does not smell anything like a violet cort, which would be my guess based on the rusty brown gills/spore traces and pale blue mottling of the cap. Smell is sweet and fragrant, very appetizing.

[Dave W]

There are many robust species of Cortinarius that show violet/purple on the cap. This certainly look likes one such type of Cort. Rusty brown spore deposit on the stipe. Very difficult to get these to species. I think this one fits into subgenus Seriocybe.

[brianf]

Probably C.Alboviolaceus.....lot's of that growing around here over the last few weeks......seems to come right after the main flush of purpurascens hits. You can't eat it, shame as it's a beautiful mushroom when fresh AND it smells super sweet.....really tempting but you SHOULDN'T. In my experience, the one thing that makes IDing the purple corts slightly easier is that most of them grow in short intervals throughout the course of the season in succession. Save for C.Iodes/Iodeoides....they one can pop up any time.

There are some other purple cortinarius out there, but I do believe the remainder to be extremely rare, intensely geographically specific, or both.

You could probably find cortinarius infractus which can have some light purple/silver/grey qualities and look somewhat similar to your mushrooms, but that generally tends towards grey, shiny, and slimy. Also tends towards growing pretty big....at least up here. Don't know if you can eat infractus....but it's unattractive and doesn't have the sweet smell.

The only two purple corts I can attest to being edible, at least I have had no problems with consumption, are C.Violaceus and C.Purpurascens. I would still advise caution when dealing with them. Maybe best to just avoid because most corts hate human kidneys.

I have a nice jar of dried violaceus I look forward to using this winter, actually.

[Dave W]

I didn't know C. violaceus is edible. I don't see it all that often, but when I do see it ti's pretty unmistakable... dark purple, bluish-gray, or nearly black scaly-to-grainy cap surface. Last photos I have are from 2011.

Here's one I found two weekends ago. Mixed woods, mostly hardwoods with some hemlock. Any ideas?

And another one. Same species as last one?

[ChefsWild]

I leave all the corts alone other than poking at them for an ID or to take pretty pictures. I don't trust this species one bit as you wouldn't necessarily know you were being poisoned in the short term after eating.

[Dave W]

Maybe 25 years ago, some of the field guides listed a few Corts as edible. I tried iodes, armillatus, and what I had IDed as alboviolaceus. IMO, none of these tasted an good at all.

The only Cort that I eat is C. caperatus, aka. Rozites caperata, aka "The Gypsy." This one is not difficult to ID, has been consumed by many people for years, and tastes good. Michael Kuo syas he has no idea about the why they are called "Gypsy". But I have a suggestion. They tend to appear in troops, but in different places form year to year, and not always at the same time of year. That is, they seem to move about in groups. (Actually, I don't see this type very often.)

People from the west coast tell me there's a Cort out there that's considered a good edible. I forget the species name.

[brianf]

Dave, the real greyish ones could be alboviolaceus or infractus....but they look like one of the super rare NA corts known as c.caesiocanescens.......can look remarkably similar to alboviolaceus but it generally doesn't get so lightly colored when aged......tends to stay kind of medium to dark grey. Alboviolaceus usually has a fairly pronounced bulbous shape at the butt of the stipe even above ground too.....but not always. Microscopic features could help. If you lived in New Zealand/Australia an ID would probably be easier....they have lots of grey corts and people seem to know about them. I

You should fire up the microscope on those bad boys if possible.

As far as C.Violaceus, there's mixed opinions about it's quality as an edible, but the ones I find up here are yummy. It's quite similar in flavor and texture to old man of the woods and sullius spraigus/pictus....perhaps a little more "mushroomy" tasting. This mushroom seems rare but I can find good numbers of it.....usually two or so weeks after a good rain but during a dry period......during those times when you tend to not be out looking for mushrooms because of a lack of rain. It's also much tastier when dried and rehydrated.

[Dave W]

I've got some spore photos for some of these Corts. I'll get around to posting some stuff.

I've been calling most of these large grayish ones with violet tints "anomalus group".

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/cortinarius_anomalus.html

[brianf]

anomalus group seems like a reasonable assessment. i noticed the referenced similarity to c.azureus on that me.com page as well.....i think i tend to find these as well but just lump them in as alboviolaceus. it's easy to kind of lump corts into groups because most aren't edible or at least not known to be and they're not always the most exciting mushroom out there.

[Dave W]

...and there are just so many species of Cortinarius. A few are not difficult to ID, but this is the minority. Corts can be pretty cool, though. Large colorful charismatic mushrooms. I'll start a new thread.