Amethyst Deceiver

Laccaria amethystina, commonly known as the Amethyst Deceiver is a small brightly colored, edible mushroom, that grows in deciduous as well as coniferous forests. Because its bright amethyst coloration fades with age and weathering, it becomes difficult to identify, hence the common name ‘Deceiver’. This common name is shared with its close relation Laccaria laccata that also fades and weathers. It is found mainly in Northern temperate zones. This species was first described in 1778 by well-known English botanist and apothecary William Hudson as Agaricus amethystinus, and later put into the genus Laccaria by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke. The amethyst deceiver has had many binomials over a great many years, but reference to the amethyst coloration is featured in most of these. It was once placed in the genus Collybia, as Collybia amethystina, which was probably due in part to its tough collybioid-like stem. Its present binomial places it in the genus Laccaria, with the specific epithet amethystina, a pairing first used by Cooke in 1884. In 1922 it was named as a variant of Laccaria laccata, Laccaria laccata var. amethystina (Cooke) Rea, which is now a synonym.