September and October are some of the best months for observing mushrooms, and this is even more true after a heavy rain. Friday’s downpours have caused fungi of all shapes and sizes to spring forth. One that has been continuously catching my eye lately is the viscid violet cort (Cortinarius iodes). Newly emerged viscid violet corts have a bright purple cap, which expands up to 2 1/2 inches in diameter and fades to light lilac or even white or yellowish as it matures. The entire cap and stalk of the mushroom is coating in a sticky slime. 

A newly emerged viscid violet cort still has a button-like rounded cap. 

A more mature viscid violet cort has an opened, almost flat cap that has started to get yellowish-white spots/streaks.

Viscid violet corts are a common species throughout eastern North American oak forests. The Cortinarius genus is the largest genus of fungi in North American, and is so named due to the presence of a structure called a cortina. A cortina is a cobweb-like partial veil that forms over the immature pore-bearing surfaces (i.e. gills) that typically disintegrates as the mushroom matures. 

Although viscid violet corts are reportedly edible, this mushroom is not recommended for foraging due to a nearly identical non-edible species of mushroom (Cortinarius iodeoides). There are two methods of distinguishing between the species, but they don’t offer much help to the casual mushroom student. The first is that the two species can be separated by the taste of the slime, as C. iodeoides slime tastes bitter while C. iodes slime has a mild taste, but it is not recommended to go around licking unidentified mushrooms. The second is that their spore sizes are substantially different, although such a comparison would require a microscope. For now, I’m satisfied to simply enjoy their colorful additions to the forest floor – this is not a mushroom I will be attempting to sample culinarily.