#Amethyst deceiver

[denimgrei]

"Laccaria Amethystina" commonly known as Amethyst Deceiver. 💜🍄

An edible mushroom and usually found in all types of woodlands. The stunning bright purple color signifies its youth, but it fades to pale brown or tan with age and weathering. Because of fading, it could easily be confused with the potentially deadly Lilac Fibrecap. 💜💀

~~~

My first entry for Funguary even though the month is almost over, coz I'm always fashionably late lol. It do be like that. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

[fungusqueen]

Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis

[mycoblogg]

FOTD #034 : amethyst deceiver! (laccaria amethystina)

the amethyst deceiver is a mycorrhizal fungus in the family hydnangiaceae. it is found in most temperate areas across europe, asia & central + south + (eastern) north america.

the big question : can i bite it?? yeah !! this fungus is edible, though not necessarily choice.

l. amethystina description :

"the cap is 1–6 cm in diameter, & is initially convex, later flattening, & often with a central depression (navel). when moist it is a deep purplish lilac, which fades upon drying out. it is sometimes slightly scurfy at the center, & has pale striations at the margin. the stem is the same colour as the cap, & has whitish fibrils at the base, which become mealy at the top. it is fibrous, hollow, fairly tough when rolled in the fingers, with dimensions of 0.6 to 7 centimetres (0.24 to 2.76 in) long by 0.1 to 0.7 centimetres (0.039 to 0.276 in) thick. the flesh is without a distinctive taste or smell, & is thin, with pale lilac coloration. the gills are colored as the cap, often quite distantly spaced, & are dusted by the white spores; their attachment to the stem is sinuate—having a concave indentation before attaching to the stem."

[images : source & source] [fungus description : source]

[gremlinoftheweald]

I really missed drawing this lill dude

[tathrin]

A Bit of Mirkwood World Building:

The amethyst deceiver mushroom, Middle-earth style.

Commonly called Violet Despair, Violet Deceiver, False Delight, Purple Liar, and Shadow Deceiver in Westron.

*elvish name pending someone better at Sindarin than me devising one.

They grow in the southern part of Mirkwood, near Dol Guldur, and in the poisoned lands around Minas Morgul, where instead of arsenic they absorb the Shadows of the place, becoming darker and richer in color, and capable of swamping you with despair and paranoia if you eat them.

They predate the Shadow, but without a source of evil and corruption to feed upon they were nearly harmless: used often for dyes and decorations, although rarely for eating, for even then the Violet Deceiver was known for feeding on the rot and echo of darker feelings, and thus their flesh often became tainted with these sensations and capable of inducing fear, sorrow, and dismay in those who ate them.

Those fungi which found Evil on which to feed were, of course, much worse.

They are not quite bioluminescent, but their coloring is vibrant enough that in the black shadows of Mirkwood's trees and Mordor's gloom, they can trick the eye into thinking that they glow; but it is a glow that sheds no light to drive back the surrounding dark.

The Rangers of Ithilien encounter them much more rarely than do the elves of Mirkwood, for the Rangers do not brave the lands close to Minas Morgul; but they have come across them often enough to know to be wary of them also. (Among the Rangers, the mushrooms are sometimes referred to as "Violet Joys," as a form of bitter irony.)

Their spores exude a mild compulsory effect, tempting those who smell them to eat them, even when they know better.

The initial taste of the mushroom is sweet, almost too sweet, thick and cloying; this is followed quickly by a sharp sensation of peppery heat, and then a heavy nauseating muskiness (although few people are paying much attention to the taste at that point; mostly the latter is noted as a foul, rotten aftertaste lingering for a while in the mouths of the survivors).

Their scent is distinctive: alluring and floral, like lilies or lilacs, but with a hint of the sickly-sweet stench of rotting flesh lurking beneath that floral fragrance. By the time you notice the latter, you are already close enough to be imperiled.

Consuming even a single mushroom is enough to trigger the effects, engendering overwhelming sensations of despair and paranoia. Most victims report simultaneous symptoms of both, but some experience primarily hopelessness, while some suffer predominantly from the fear, and others vacillate between the two extremes.

Eating more than three or four will leave one in a fraught emotional and even hallucinatory state for several hours, or even days.

here have been no known cases of fatal poisonings from consuming the mushrooms, but many folk—elves and mortals—have died while under the effects, whether as a result of blundering into some peril they could not properly comprehend, being too absorbed or apathetic to defend themselves against another threat, or from breaking under the despair and terror and taking their own lives before their senses clear.

The Unhoused Shades that haunt Southern Mirkwood are prone to lingering near the mushrooms as well—or perhaps it is the other way around, and it is the rot of those trapped souls upon which the mushrooms feed.

Either way, the sight of them is a sign of peril.

These mushrooms were devised for @tathrin's fic And In The Darkness to Unmake Them and @babybat98's fic The Last War of the North, but are offered free for use of anyone writing in the Tolkien fandom who wishes to add them to their stories.

Ideally we ask you to link back to this post so that other readers can likewise make use of this bit of shared world building, but that's not a hard requirement for inclusion in your works.

All you have to do it not claim the idea for your own, and continue to freely share it with anyone else who wants to play too. Thank you!

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Oxfordshire, UK

‘Searching for fungi recently, it soon became apparent that autumn has been so mild that even by mid-October the leaves on the trees at Foxholes nature reserve have remained largely in place and very little light was reaching the woodland floor. I found myself focusing on the sunlit islands where the canopy was a little more threadbare and came across this beautiful amethyst deceiver.’

Photograph: Jon Mason

[dansnaturepictures]

Fungi time

As autumn intensifies whole woods, logs, lawns and heaths come alive with enchanting colour, eccentric fruiting bodies of fungal wonders.

The fairytale toadstool, ruby and white-spotted fly agarics spring up, pizza like as they unfurl. Enigmatic pure purple amethyst deceivers and otherworldly devil’s fingers sights to behold; as are mysterious shaggy ink caps that emerge in the grass and warm coloured shaggy scalycaps that huddle around tree bases. Yellow stagshorn, club-like tuning fork and candlesnuff fungi rise into the air. The mighty parasols, complex panthercaps, puffball, earthball and false death caps bring beautiful patterns. It's satisfying to observe bleeding fairy helmets, waxcaps, the meandering patterns of turkey tail; earthstars and eyelash fungi other treasured prizes of captivating fungi watching walks.

[briileaf]

🍄 Funguary 20: Amethyst Deceiver

They're quite vulnerable while juvenile. Mature deceivers will wave their inverted bells wildly to scare off predators. It's surprisingly effective.

[trippingthemoonlightfantastic]

Pretty Liars

Watercolor on Black Paper

2021, 11"x 14"

Amethyst Deceivers

[one-fish-a-day]

day 50 & 51 | Funguary Day 19 & 20: Black Trumpet and Amethyst Deceiver

Funguary Chart | Funguary Week Three Chart

[starozoa]

rock candy warrior 💎

[mythsandmonaidhean]

mushrooms :D

(these are available as free cross stitch patterns on my ko-fi)

[fungusqueen]

Laccaria amethyst-occidentalis (Amethyst Deceiver) from right before the pandemic started in 2020. This was actually the last camping trip I've taken so I hope I can do more camping in the near future

[lemondev]

Week 3 of @feefal ‘s Funguary challenge! Amethyst Deceiver 💜 🍄

[gremlinoftheweald]

Hear me out: amethyst deceiver + moondrop 🌚

moonshroom

Edible little fella

[cosmosoddyssey]

Day 19 Black Trumpet / Edible

Day 20 Amethyst Deceiver / Edible

Day 21 Puffball / Edible

And that concludes my truffle hogs for this week.