All about blewit mushrooms, Clitocybe nuda! ID info, lookalikes, and tips for finding edible blewits

WARNING: I lick a mushroom in this video. It is largely unnecessary to lick mushrooms in order to ID them.
In this video, I talk about how to find and identify Clitocybe nuda, a common edible mushroom known as the blewit. Blewits have lovely purple gills, with tones of lilac and tan on the cap and a faintly streaky/furry stem.
Blewits are decomposers, and most specimens have a big clump of mycelium and leaves all tangled together at the base of the stem. In addition to my blewits, I share a parasol mushroom in the Macrolepiota genus and discuss the life styles of these fungi. Both are secondary decomposers, meaning that they grow on the forest floor and consume leaf litter and other organic matter that's pretty far along its journey to becoming soil.
Next, I share two lookalikes for Clitocybe nuda: Cortinarius iodes and Lactarius indigo group. Cortinarius iodes, commonly called the viscid purple cort, is a slimy, rusty-gilled mushroom with a cap that ranges from dingy tan to purple and a brown webby ring on the stem. Cortinarius iodes ostensibly can be told apart from a similar species, Cortinarius iodeoides, the flavor of the viscid snot on the cap. In a bold move, I try to pronounce the name Cortinarius iodeoides and proceed to lick my specimen. I usually don't lick mushrooms to identify them, but evidently that's the best way to field test purple slimy corts, so here we are.
Finally, I share a fine sample of the radically blue and goofy-looking Lactarius indigo group. Although it's pretty far-fetched to call this edible mushroom a lookalike for Clitocybe nuda, I really fancy blue mushrooms and couldn't resist highlighting it.

[@TeeJ1984]

I absolutely LOVE your videos. They are very informative and very detailed. Im a beginner forager and your videos have REALLY helped to expand my knowledge base. Thank you so much for taking the time to help!

[@annamchugh5381]

You are very welcome! i really appreciate the feedback and am thankful to know it's helpful information

[@trimbaker1893]

Good morning Anna, The more I explore your videos, the more I look forward to each next one. You get me chuckling with your fun way of thinking and saying. Anna, I just met one of my neighbors and he has given me permission to explore his land. He has 160 acres up here in the mountains near Cashiers NC. Yesterday he showed me some of the land. Oh what a fabulous mushroom walk it was. Black trumpets right off the bat, many many new species of gorgeous mushrooms I have to look up and so many more to see. I thought of your hungry brain as I showed my friend the many features to notice in identification. I had to be careful to not lead him into thinking he knew enough to forage yet...that is a big responsibility. Smiling, George

[@glennmiller9759]

Excellent video - you are an outstanding presenter/teacher!

[@andrewstephens2687]

Dude! There's so little info/video on blewit. Thank you so much for making this and for the focus on info. Instant sub.

[@KennyP88]

Thanks Anna. I recently picked both growing side by side and ended up doing a spoor sample to be sure, before trying a couple of caps in the pan. yum-o.

[@meowijuana2322]

Found some purple blewits growing out of an old rained on hay bale. Nice info

[@hollycrumpler2676]

Thank you Anna. I found a mushroom today that, having just watched your video, felt confident it was a Blewit. I plan to eat it tomorrow! Thank you for giving me confidence to start eating some of these beautiful mushrooms that I photograph all of the time!

[@annamchugh5381]

Oh excellent! That is so gratifying to hear!

[@Nudlesgems]

Hi Anna, I think I found a whole mess of Flowery Blewits today (Lepista/Clitocybe Irina) - it would be so GREAT if you would either add a section on identifying these vs other lookalikes or do another video just on the Irina...thanks!!

[@georux6783]

Great vid! I've been finding and eating 6 or 7 different types of wild mushrooms now. Started getting into it 3 years ago with some giant puff balls. (Easy to distinguish) Then, walking through the 40 acers I live on the last couple falls I've discovered many other edible ones. Hen, chicken, shrimps of the woods. Honey mushrooms (woods was absolutely full of them a week ago), black trumpets, red chanterelles, boletes, parasol... And, these wood blewits. They grow in the back yard... same place as last year. Late bloomers so they are looking good right now even though it's quite chilly out. I tried them last year and wasn't too impressed. I have to try again! They have such a nice aroma maybe I need to try another way of making them. Just with butter, garlic and onions last time. Though I feel that way of making them made them a little bitter. (Like the shrimp of the woods did.. (aborted entoloma)) Not a fan of those either. Is the garlic turning these bitter...? I wonder.

[@donalddunkin]

Thank you, Anna. I live in Lexington SC., so your videos are the more pertinent to my hunting and foraging.

[@DANDIIDAY1111]

Great video and well explained

[@cheryllwaldrop9732]

Thank you! The ones I found look just like your example of the mature blewit around the 4 minute mark. I have several sources confirming that they are indeed blewits, and I really want to work up the nerve and cook them tomorrow.

[@kimmiemamatomany6226]

I appreciate you sharing your passion and knowledge. I learned so much from you! Thank you ❤️

[@johnwieczorek8744]

I'm always happy to see a new vid from Anna!

[@annamchugh5381]

haha thanks! hoping to keep publishing through the winter, though it can get a little hard to find interesting stuff in January...

[@Burkwood]

You're a real-life hobbit...;p Fantastic video. You're one of my ten KZbin go-to-firsts now :) Dave

[@annamchugh5381]

Wow, thanks! I certainly feel like the hobbit life suits me. glad you like the videos!

[@thetobaccoguy1751]

Pretty sure I found a Nuda. Taking a spore print now. Awesome video!

[@FoundYouForaging]

Really enjoyed this video, it's interesting to note that the corts and blewits in Michigan are fruiting during the same time they are fruiting in North Carolina, and I wish that the Indigo Milky was as plentiful here in Michigan. Look forward to your next video.

[@annamchugh5381]

wow, that's interesting! i would have thought you all would have your corts and blewits earlier, since the weather gets cooler earlier! for many years i lived in a lactarius indigo-free zone, and it was such a treat to see them in the woods of NC. i suppose it's a good trade-off: i get to find more blue mushrooms, but there are also copperheads.

[@tracycrider7778]

@@annamchugh5381this!

[@forrestwestberry6868]

I appreciate your energy and information

[@dankauffman8568]

Thanks Anna !

[@charronfamilyconnect]

thanks for the video. I missed the part about how to find them?

[@natcross-padden]

mmm, sour mushroom snot :') Really informative video, thank you!!

[@trimbaker1893]

Anna, I bet there is a fairy ring of assorted mushrooms growing in huge concentric circles on your lawn, with the center being your dryer vent outside your house. Laughing, I wonder how many spores you have brought home and laundered and sent out via the dryer, : )

[@TheBaronOfBromley]

just ate a lovely portion of blewits I found in the forest today☺

[@kkso3318]

Does C. nuda have almost felty or velvety feeling top? I have tons of mushrooms that are really close to these, but have thos wonderful velvety feel to the cap.

[@Ariel-oj2hj]

Hi there fantastic video!! I think I may have found Blewits but when I slice the mushroom down the middle it's just white and not marbled purple. Do all Blewits have purple marbling in the stem?

[@tinsoffish1810]

still hoping meadow mushrooms pop up in the yard🤔.

[@tinsoffish1810]

you are so fun to watch and listen to...i hope you discover a new blue stainer😏🍄..thats got a black/purpley spore load. 🤔that agressivly colonizes steralized(or not) brown cardboard. and since i am feeling over optomistic..🤔...HORSE AND DEER POOP!😃....global game changer....

[@tinsoffish1810]

no shame!🙂your stories are excellent. mushroom stumps and seeds of all good things find the holes in my pockets 🤔...not worried. the birds intestianlly planted a patch of wild strawberries next to the bird feeder😁..(please dont shred me for my mis spellings).

[@annamchugh5381]

Thanks 👍

[@tinsoffish1810]

@@annamchugh5381 thank you😊

[@richardhorne4963]

Its a blue leg

[@ArbitraryOnslaught]

do these smell like cinnamon

[@tinsoffish1810]

first😎

[@jex8573]

Third!

[@tinsoffish1810]

@@jex8573 lol

[@ladinark1672]

Mushroom names are in Latin and not English, so the vocabulary is wrong and it is much easier to pronounce the original species name without twisting your tongue so hard :)

[@et5600]

I'm not really sure what you mean. Are you saying that Latin names shouldn't be spoken in English?

[@ladinark1672]

@@et5600 Latin names ARE in Latin, that's why they're called Latin, so they should be pronounced in Latin.

[@annamchugh5381]

Mushroom names are in Latin, Greek, and random gibberish (people’s names, SquarePantsii, etc). I do my best but pronunciation isn’t really my specialty because it doesn’t matter much

[@et5600]

@@ladinark1672 I take it you know that there's no surviving known way to pronounce Latin, right?

[@et5600]

@@annamchugh5381 You're doing great, I'm really happy you include those names in your videos. I'm on a different continent so because of your use of Latin, I can follow easily on what fungi your videos are on. Thank you the education