Purple Cortinar

Cortinarius archeri is a mycorrhizal fungus that is common in Jarrah forests appearing mainly in June and July.  Interestingly it thrives in recently burnt forest and so far I have only found it in the bit we burned 2 years ago.  In this photo of  a young mushroom, you can actually see the matrix pattern of the webbed veil between the cap and the stem. This veil gives the fungus its name, which means curtained.   The common names are cortinar and webcap.  Most of the Cortinarius are poisonous and some are lethal, so the general rule is that it should not be eaten.  Cortinarius is the largest genus of mushrooms in the world, containing well over a thousand types.  The stem and cap are both slimy grouping it as a Myxacium (as opposed to Phlegmacium cap slimy, stem dry) and the cap is “hygrophanous” ie it changes colour as it dries out.

According to the mushroom expert,species with a slimy cap and stem have a “slime veil”  like the veil on an Amanita but more disgusting.  As the mushroom grows, the slime veil breaks, leaving slime on the cap and on the lower stem.