Goatcheese webcapCortinarius camphoratus

No. Inedible because of its repulsive camphor-and-potato smell, which doesn't go away with cooking. On its own it contains no described deadly toxins, but the genus Cortinarius has several deadly poisonous species (with orellanine) and telling the species apart precisely is very hard. The rule of modern mycology: don't eat any webcap.

Several species in the genus — Cortinarius orellanus, C. rubellus (fool's webcap, deadly webcap) — contain orellanine, a nephrotoxin that destroys kidney cells. Symptoms are delayed by 2-21 days after eating — a record delay among mushroom poisonings. Without timely treatment — acute kidney failure, and in severe cases the need for lifelong hemodialysis or a kidney transplant. Telling these deadly species apart from their "safe" relatives is a job for an experienced mycologist with a microscope, not for an ordinary forager.

Because of the strong smell, the risk of accidentally eating enough of it is minimal. If it is eaten — usually nausea, an unpleasant aftertaste, possibly mild stomach discomfort. No serious poisonings have been described, but if there's any suspicion of a webcap in your basket — call an ambulance, and get kidney function tests (creatinine, urea) monitored over 2-3 weeks.

Four features of the genus Cortinarius. (1) Cortina — a cobwebby partial veil between the cap margin and the stem in young mushrooms (like a spider's web). (2) Rusty-brown gills and spore print in mature mushrooms (in young ones the gills can be all sorts of colors — lilac, olive, yellow, reddish). (3) On the stem there's often a thin band of rusty-brown "dust" — spores that settled on the cortina remnants. (4) Large size — many webcaps are sizable (5-15 cm caps), fleshy, with a strong silhouette.

In coniferous and mixed forests — mostly with spruce, less often with pine and beech. It likes mossy shady spots and boggy spruce woods. A mycorrhizal partner of spruce.

Mostly in the forest zone: the Carpathians (especially in old-growth spruce forests), Prykarpattia, Polissia (spruce and pine-spruce forests). It doesn't occur in the steppe or the southern forest-steppe.

More like "when to recognize it and walk past". August — October, peaking in September.

With other lilac webcaps: C. violaceus (violet webcap, rare), C. traganus (gassy webcap, also with a repulsive smell). Among edible lilac look-alikes — the wood blewit (Lepista nuda): its gills are violet, not rusty, the spore print is pale pink, and there's no cortina. If you see a lilac mushroom with a cobwebby veil — it's a webcap, don't eat it.