Amethyst Deceiver

Here's a great little forest gem, the Amethyst Deceiver (Laccaria amethystina). Soon they'll be covering many of our woodland floors. Bright purple when young they fade as they age, their tiny button caps also open with age and can become distorted, their stems are course and fibrous; if collected young they are quite hard to misidentify as they are so small and notably purple. As with other laccaria the Amethyst Deceiver is edible and although small you can collect them in large numbers during a good season, it's best just picking off the cap (discarding the stem) for cooking and adding to a mushroom medley, risotto or similar. The cap will retain its colour, so great to add to meals if you want to weird people out.