Field Blewit
Lepista saeva · Tricholomataceae
Also called Blue Leg
A pasture mushroom with a dull buff cap and an unmistakable violet-blue stem.
Edible with caution. Must be cooked thoroughly. A few people are sensitive to blewits even when cooked.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
Season
September to December
Where it grows
- Grassland
- Pasture
- Chalk downland
Identification
- Cap
- 5-12cm, pale buff to greyish brown, smooth, wavy edged with age.
- Gills / pores
- Crowded, pale pinkish-buff, never lilac.
- Stem
- Short, stout and clearly streaked violet-blue.
- Flesh
- Whitish, firm.
- Spore print
- Pale pink.
- Smell & taste
- Perfumed and pleasant.
Lookalikes
Cortinarius species have rusty spores and a cobwebby veil. Check the pale pink print and the blue stem.
In the kitchen
Excellent in cream sauces and pies. Freezes well once cooked.
Also caution
Chicken of the Woods
Laetiporus sulphureus
Vivid sulphur-yellow and orange brackets on standing trees, with a texture famously like chicken breast.
Wood Blewit
Lepista nuda
A late-season woodland mushroom with a striking lilac flush and a perfumed smell.
Morel
Morchella esculenta
The great prize of spring: a honeycombed hollow cone, best hunted on disturbed chalky ground.