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Field Blewit

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Field Blewit

Edible

Edible
Autumn

Autumn
Winter

Winter

A safe mushroom for the novice forager as there are no look-a-likes in the UK.

Mushroom Type
Common Names

Field Blewit (EN), Pied-Violet (FR), Blue-Leg (US), Coes Las y Maes (CY), GΔ…sΓ³wka Dwubarwna (PL), LilatΓΆnkΕ± Pereszke

Scientific Name

Lepista personata

Synonyms

Lepista saeva, Clitocybe saeva

Season Start

Oct

Season End

Jan

Average Mushroom height (CM)

6

Average Cap width (CM)

12

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Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Cap

Cap

Greyish brown to beige and very smooth. Starting convex becoming flattened or even depressed with an inrolled margin in younger specimens.

Gills

Gills

Gills white, off white to flesh coloured and crowded.

Stem

Stem

Off white with a blue/lilac, vertically fiborous covering. Chunky short and often swollen at the base.

Flesh

Flesh

Thick, white/off white.

Habitat

Habitat

Pastureland, grassland often in fairy rings or groups.

Spore Print

Spore Print

Off white to Pale pink. Ellipsoid with small spines. You should scrape your spores into a small pile to get an accurate spore colour.

Taste / Smell

Perfumed and mushroomy. MustΒ be cooked before consumption.

Frequency

Uncommon.

Other Facts

A great tasting mushroom with a good texture and usually growing in rings or groups. This mushroom keeps growing into winter and only a really harsh frost will finish them off, I have found some in February before.
The Blewits like the cold and only start to appear when the temperature is constantly below 17 degrees.
Must be cooked before consumption.

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COMMENTS

10 responses to “Field Blewit”

  1. A avatar
    A

    Hi.
    I read an article you’d written in 2018 and saw this link in answer to another person looking to identify some mushrooms. Could you help me please?
    Noticed these growing in a line near beech hedges on a mossy soggy lawn. The base of the stem seems a purplish colour. Top felt dry when picked. All I can say is that it looks delicious. It doesn’t smell bad. Smells mushroomy. No funny latex or discolouration when I broke off a piece and squeezed. I’ve never seen them in Ireland before. Can you help me identify them please? We seldom see mushrooms growing in November in our area. Cap is brown, smooth and dry. About 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
    If they are edible, how can I store them? Should I store them? Or should I just eat them fresh?
    They REALLY look amazing! I do hope they are edible.

    Reply
    1. Eric Biggane avatar
      Eric Biggane

      Sorry for the late reply, they sound like they may have been Field Blewits but without seeing them I couldn’t say. See http://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/field-blewit/

      Reply
  2. Ronen avatar
    Ronen

    Just cooked and eat my first field blewits – absolutely delicious

    Reply
  3. Jon avatar
    Jon

    Just found my first lot of field blewits ever thanks to the foragers guide you guys produce, and your YouTube content. Rekindled my love for foraging, thank you!

    Reply
  4. Helen Marjorie Litchfield avatar
    Helen Marjorie Litchfield

    I just found what looks like these growing in the compost heap at the bottom of my garden which clearly isn’t typical. Could they still be field blewits?

    Reply
    1. Eric Biggane avatar
      Eric Biggane

      I would need to see photos to be certain but they could be growing in the compost heap. If they have the tell tail purple markings on the stem, they can’t really be anything else.

      Reply
  5. Shane avatar
    Shane

    Just found a ring of them on the lawn and used your great site to identify them.
    Took a chance and cooked a couple, amazing.
    They don’t have the purple colour on the stem but otherwise everything seems in place, including the tiny baby one at the base.
    Thank you.πŸ™

    Reply
  6. Timi avatar
    Timi

    They appeared in my garden and are forming a fairy ring with approx 4 meter diameter with the corpse of a willow tree in the center… Just beside my belltent… I can not believe how delicious they are… Thanks for the reassuring description…. πŸ‘πŸ‘‘πŸ‘Œ

    Reply
  7. Stephen Paxton avatar
    Stephen Paxton

    There are some cortinarius mushrooms that do look quite a lot like the field blewits so might be worth mentioning – I saw one on a Facebook group for example: recently:https://www.facebook.com/groups/242093029305785/permalink/2474243509424048/

    Reply
    1. Attila Fodi avatar
      Attila Fodi

      Hi Stephen,
      Field blewit (Lepista personata) is a saprotrophic fungus, growing on grasslands, pasturelands, meadows. Its lookalike webcaps are mycorrhizal with various trees, so they won’t appear on the same habitat without their mycorrhizal partner(s). Personally I would expect this kind of comment under the description of wood blewit (Lepista nuda), but we mentioned at least one potential lookalike of it there, the bruising webcap (Thaxterogaster purpurasens, syn: Cortinarius purpurascens).

      Reply

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