Wood blewit - Lepista nuda
- The Foraging Course Company
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Edible mushroom - intermediate Season - autumn to winter Common names Wood blewit, blewit, blue cap, blue hat, blue leg
Scientific name meaning: Lepista is Latin for goblet, and nuda is from the Latin nudus, meaning naked or stripped of cover
Habitat  The wood blewit is found most often in leaf litter in woodland, under hedges or on compost heaps. |
Overall structure and growth  The wood blewit is a saprobic mushroom living on decaying leaf litter. It can be found individually, in small groups and sometimes in rings. |
Cap  The fleshy cap is 5 to 15cm wide and starts off violet in colour. It turns tan brown from the centre as it ages or dries. It is convex, often with an umbo (bump), flattens and can funnel up with age and has an inrolled margin. The edge of the cap often ends up wavy. |
Gills and spores  The gills are lilac in colour and fading to buff with age. The crowded gills are sinuate (attached to the stem at the very top of the gills but with a little notch before the attachment). The spore colour is pale pink to pale cream. |
Stem  The fairly robust, fibrous stem is lilac in colour and 1.5 to 2.5cm wide. It can reach 5 to 10cm tall. There is no stem ring/skirt and the base of the stem is very downy. |
Flesh, smell and taste  The flesh is lilac and browns with age. The smell is perfumed or floral and taste is mild. |
Possible lookalikes  Could be confused with some webcap (Cortinarius) species. But, they often have a rust-brown spore deposit on their stems and lack a floral/perfumed smell. The clouded agaric (Clitocybe nebularis), pictured next to a wood blewit, is similar but its cap is grey-brown, and it has cream, decurrent gills. The sordid blewit (Lepista sordida) is very similar but is also edible. |
Use as a food Must be cooked and can be used exactly as a cultivated mushroom. It has a strong fragrant flavour so works well with cream/cream substitutes Hazards Wood blewits have been reported to cause mild gastric intolerance in some people - perform a tolerance test when eating for the first time. This mushroom can grow on roadside grass verges where it can accumulate traffic-related toxins. It is advisable to avoid harvesting from the sides of busy roads
Use in herbal medicine and medicine Some anti-diabetic, anti-hyperglycaemic and antimicrobial effects have been seen under laboratory conditions
If you are suffering from any ailment or need medical advice, please see your General Practitioner Other uses None known Importance to other species Provides food for a number of invertebrates and their larvae
Always stay safe when foraging. You need to be 100% sure of your identification, 100% sure that your foraged item is edible, and 100% sure that you are not allergic to it (it is good practice to always try a small amount of any new food you are consuming). If in doubt, leave it out!
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