Violet Pinkgill

Entoloma euchroum

Living and dead deciduous wood, most often black alder, oak. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 2-5 cm across, conical when young, later raised-flattened, slightly depressed in the middle, fibrous, scaly, bluish-violet, becoming paler with age to greyish-brownish-violet. Gills violet-blue, taking on a brown tinge with age, adnate. Stem 2-5 (7)x0.2-0.5 cm, violet-blue. Flesh thin, the colour of the cap, rather sharp-tasting. Characteristic features: bluish-violet fruiting bodies growing on rotten wood. Appears singly or several fruiting bodies together on dead or living wood of black alder, rowan, oak and ash, in nettle-rich black-alder woods. Uncommon. Inedible.