Clitocybe nuda / Lepista nuda: The Blewit

[Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Tricholomataceae > Clitocybe...]

by Ron Meyers

When I noticed a large fruiting of fungi on top of my compost pile, I thought I knew what I had found before I examined it. A close inspection, especially of the gills and stem, confirmed my initial impression: I had nice meal of Clitocybe nuda, or "blewits."

If you were asked to name the dishes you have consumed which included lilac or lavender colored ingredients, you might have to think for a while. But if you had ever had a meal of sautéed blewits, you would probably remember immediately. Clitocybe nuda is a highly regarded edible, but should not be eaten raw. Older specimens may have a bad flavor. See the comments below for help distinguishing the blewit from its look-alikes.

The first crop I picked I made into a cream sauce for pasta. It was a good recipe, but the shallots overshadowed the taste of the mushrooms. So when I had a second fruiting I simply sliced them vertically and sautéed them in butter. The distinctive taste of the mushrooms was enhanced, and it was a real treat. I harvested four crops in a month from a year-old pile of grass clippings and leaves.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, gregariously, or in clusters; in woods, brush, gardens, under conifers or hardwoods, on lawns, around and on compost piles, or wherever there is organic debris; widely distributed; late summer on into the fall and winter. A single mycelium may produce several crops a year, so check your patches regularly!

Cap: 4-15 cm; convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming broadly convex to nearly flat, or with an uplifted, often wavy margin in age; surface smooth, slightly sticky and shiny when moist, somewhat shiny to dull when dry; sometimes finely cracked over the center; purple, or purplish with brown to grayish shades when fresh; fading to brownish, flesh-colored, tan, or paler.

Gills: Attached to the stem--sometimes by a notch--or beginning to run down the stem; close or crowded; pale lavender to violet or lilac; sometimes grayish purple when fresh; fading to buff, pinkish-buff or brownish in age.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; 1-3 cm thick at apex; equal or often enlarged at the base; dry; finely hairy; pale purple or colored like the gills; becoming brownish in age; base often covered with downy purple mycelium.

Flesh: Thick; rather soft; purplish to lilac-buff.

Odor and Taste: Taste not distinctive, pleasant, or slightly bitter; odor fragrant.

Spore Print: Pinkish.

Microscopic Details: Spores 5-8 x 3-5 µ; elliptical; roughened or sometimes smooth; inamyloid.

REFERENCES: (Bulliard, 1790: Fries, 1821) Bigelow & Smith, 1969. (Sacardo, 1887; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Bigelow, 1982; Weber & Smith, 1985; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Metzler & Metzler, 1992; Kuyper, 1995; Evenson, 1997; Roody, 2003; Miller & Miller, 2006; Kuo, 2007.) Herb. Kuo 10129601, 10090305.

Clitocybe nuda is also known as Lepista nuda. There are numerous synonyms and former names, including Tricholoma nudum, Rhodopaxillus nudus, and Tricholoma personatum. Recent DNA research is inconclusive on the separation of Lepista from Clitocybe (see Moncalvo and collaborators, 2002). "Blewit" apparently derives from 'blue hat,' even though the mushroom is more purple than blue.

While there are other purple mushrooms, some of which are poisonous, they can be fairly easily distinguished from Clitocybe nuda. Inocybe species have brown gills and spores when mature. Purple Cortinarius species have a cortina when young, and have rusty-brown spores. Mycena pura is small and slender, and has white spores. Purplish Laccaria species like Laccaria amethystina have tough, fibrous stems; they are white-spored and edible. Bluish Entoloma and Leptonia species are not nearly as purple.

Further Online Information:

Clitocybe nuda at MykoWeb
Lepista nuda at Roger's Mushrooms
Lepista nuda at Fungi of Poland

Killer Blewits

In this photo the cells of a Clitocybe nuda mycelium are attacking colonies of bacteria. Many fungi are known to seek out and destroy bacteria, nematodes, and other organisms. For an illustrated online article on the subject, see George Barron's Predatory fungi, wood decay, and the carbon cycle.

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Cite this page as:

Meyers, R. (2003, December). Clitocybe nuda / Lepista nuda: The blewit. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/clitocybe_nuda.html