Bicoloured Deceiver

Laccaria bicolor

Pine forests (dry), parks, forest edges, copses, roadsides. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 1—4 (6) cm across, convex-flattened, broadly and shallowly depressed in the centre, matt, fibrous, finely scaly, brown, cinnamon-coloured, violet-pinkish-brown, fading with age. Gills thick, distant, broad, pale greyish-pink with a violet tinge, subdecurrent. Stem 3—8 (10)x0.3—0.8 cm, longitudinally violet-fibrous, greyish-pink, pinkish-brown, tough. Flesh greyish, brownish, not bitter, with a mushroomy smell. Characteristic features: as for mushrooms of the deceiver family — fruiting bodies fairly robust, gills violet. Grows singly or in small groups. Not rare. Edible, worth attention, especially good for flavouring soups.