Why is a delayed poison so dangerous?

Because you feel perfectly well for days and never connect the illness to the meal. By the time symptoms appear, orellanine has already damaged the kidneys. Any suspected webcap ingestion is a hospital matter immediately, not a wait-and-see.

Do I need to cook wood blewits?

Yes, thoroughly. Raw or undercooked blewits cause stomach upset, and a minority of people react to them even when well cooked, so try a small amount the first time.

What about field blewits?

Lepista saeva has the same pale pinkish spore print and a violet stem with a paler cap. The same spore print test separates it from webcaps.

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Wood Blewit vs Webcaps

Wood Blewits are a much-loved late-season mushroom, but purple and lilac-tinged mushrooms in autumn woodland include the Cortinarius webcaps, and two of those destroy kidneys weeks after the meal.

The test that decides it

Take a spore print. A wood blewit drops a pale pinkish-buff print; every webcap drops rust brown. Look also for the cobwebby veil (the cortina) between cap edge and stem in young webcaps, and for rusty spore dust caught on the stem of mature ones.

Wood Blewit

Lepista nuda

Edible with caution

Lilac to bluish flush on gills, stem and cap when young
Spore print pale pinkish buff
Strong perfumed, slightly floral smell
Must be well cooked; causes upset raw and a few people react even cooked

Full species guide →

Deadly Webcap

Cortinarius rubellus

Deadly poisonous

Cobwebby veil (cortina) joins cap edge to stem in young specimens
Spore print rust brown; rusty dust often visible on the stem
Tawny orange-brown, never lilac, but confusion happens in poor light
Contains orellanine - kidney failure begins two days to three weeks later

Full species guide →

Feature by feature

Feature	Wood Blewit	Deadly Webcap
Spore print	Pale pinkish buff	Rust brown
Veil	No cobwebby veil	Cobwebby cortina when young; rusty remnants on the stem later
Colour	Lilac, violet or bluish, fading to tan	Tawny, orange-brown, reddish-brown
Smell	Strongly perfumed, some say frozen orange juice	Faint, radish-like
Habitat	Leaf litter, compost heaps, hedge banks, often in rings	Conifer woodland, especially with mosses and bilberry
Onset of poisoning	Not applicable when properly cooked	Delayed 2 to 21 days, by which point kidney damage is advanced

Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of a website alone. Some deadly species look very like good edibles. Check every feature, and get an expert opinion if there is any doubt at all.

Read the full foraging safety guidance.

Common questions

Why is a delayed poison so dangerous?: Because you feel perfectly well for days and never connect the illness to the meal. By the time symptoms appear, orellanine has already damaged the kidneys. Any suspected webcap ingestion is a hospital matter immediately, not a wait-and-see.
Do I need to cook wood blewits?: Yes, thoroughly. Raw or undercooked blewits cause stomach upset, and a minority of people react to them even when well cooked, so try a small amount the first time.
What about field blewits?: Lepista saeva has the same pale pinkish spore print and a violet stem with a paler cap. The same spore print test separates it from webcaps.

Checked against

Index Fungorum / Species Fungorum current names
Original field notes, wildmushroomsonline.co.uk archive

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