Early Webcap

Cortinarius evernius

Coniferous and mixed forests. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap 3-8 (10) cm across, convex-flattened, irregularly depressed, with a blunt umbo, fading, shiny, finely scaly, dark brown, purplish-brown, the margin often with a violet tinge, and the very edge with a rim of white veil. Gills purplish-brown, later with a violet tinge, old ones reddish-brown, broad, adnate. Stem 3–10 (15)x0.5-1.5 cm, of even thickness, club-shaped, violet, later whitish with only the base violet, faintly zigzag-banded yellowish-white. Flesh brownish, violet in the stem, not bitter. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies fragile, gills fairly broad, sparse. Grows singly or in small groups, especially in damp spruce forests. Inedible.