Crab brittlegill or Purple brittlegill

Cap 4-9 cm across; when young it is convex with an inrolled margin, becoming with age flat and spread out with a slightly sunken center. The cap skin is smooth, slimy in wet weather, peels back over 1/2 of the cap. The color is dark purple, wine-violet, with a distinctive blackish center (atropurpurea), paler pinkish-violet toward the edge. Old ones fade to a dingy purple. The margin of mature ones has fine radial grooves.

Cap 5-15 cm across, when young hemispherical, becoming with age flat and spreading with a slightly depressed center. The cap skin is matte, slightly sticky in wet weather, dry and matte in dry weather, peels easily 2/3 of the way to the center. Color wine-red, purple-violet, burgundy in the center, paler toward the edge, fading to pinkish-gray and ochre. In mature caps the edge has fine radial grooves.

Gilled hymenophore: the gills are attached or free from the stem, moderately crowded, thin, brittle. The color is white at first, cream with a pale ocher tinge with age. The spore print is creamy white to pale ocher.

Gilled hymenophore — the gills are attached or free from the stem, moderately crowded, fleshy, brittle. Color cream-white when young, becoming ochre-yellow to yellow-brown with age (from the mature spore powder). Spore print yellow-ochre to yellow-brown.

Stem 3-7 cm tall, 1-2 cm thick, firm, cylindrical, hollow in old ones. The color is white to cream, often with gray or gray-purple patches in the lower part. The surface is smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring.

Stem 5-10 cm tall, 1.5-3 cm thick, firm, fleshy, cylindrical, hollow inside in old specimens. Color white when young, with a characteristic pink or wine-colored tint, where pressed or cut it slowly turns yellow, then brown — a diagnostic feature. Surface smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring.

Flesh firm, brittle, white; when damaged it slowly turns slightly gray. The smell is faint, pleasant, fruity-mushroomy, the taste mild in young ones; in mature ones slightly acrid-bitterish in the gills and stem (tongue test).

Flesh firm, brittle, white, slowly turns yellow when cut, then brownish over time (especially in the stem) — a characteristic reaction of the species. Smell distinctly fishy and briny (smoked herring, shrimp, fish) — the main diagnostic. Taste mild, nutty, with no bitterness or acridity.

Faint, pleasant, fruity-mushroomy, neutral.

Distinctly fishy and briny: smoked herring, cooked shrimp, fish. A diagnostic feature of the species, clearly noticeable when cut and in the finished dish.