Violet webcapCortinarius violaceus

No, picking it is prohibited — it is listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, with criminal liability. Technically, in some Western European countries it is edible after boiling, but in Ukraine it is not eaten because of its protected status and the risk of confusing it with deadly relatives in the genus Cortinarius (fool's webcap, deadly webcap).

Photograph it as it grows (an overall shot + close-ups of the cap and the stem with its cortina). Note the GPS coordinates (with any map app). Upload it to iNaturalist UA tagged "Red Data Book of Ukraine". Don't pull it up or cut it — every fruiting body matters for the species to keep spreading. This is a real find, worthy of your personal photo archive.

No, it's safe. All the risks of Cortinarius come from eating it. You can touch it, hold it in your hands, carry it out of the forest. Just don't eat it and don't "test it on your tongue".

In old mountain beech, fir-beech and mixed forests. It loves old-growth forest with an undisturbed forest floor — mossy, with rotting wood and sparse grass. It forms mycorrhiza with beech, spruce and oak. It does not occur in young plantations or disturbed forests — it is an indicator of well-preserved old forest.

Mainly the Carpathians (especially abundant in the old beech primeval forests of Zakarpattia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions), the Carpathian foothills. Less often in northern Polissia (Rivne region, Volyn) in old mixed forests. It does not occur in the steppe or the southern forest-steppe.

August — October, peaking in September. Very sporadic — in some years 5-10 fruiting bodies per hectare, in others none at all. The best finds come after a cool, damp summer and early autumn.

Among violet and lilac mushrooms — with the wood blewit (Lepista nuda), but that one has a pink spore print (not rusty) and no cortina. With the goatcheese webcap (C. camphoratus) — also lilac, but with a repulsive smell of rotting potatoes, while the violet webcap smells pleasantly of cedar. With the Goliath webcap (C. praestans) — a rare species, also in the Red Data Book, only larger and with orange tints.

Yes, we should. The violet webcap is an indicator of well-preserved old forest. Its disappearance from a region means that the old-growth forest is gone, and with it dozens of other Red Data Book species (other fungi, lichens, rare insects, orchids). So protecting its populations effectively means protecting the whole living forest. If you've found this species, share your find with conservationists — it may become an argument for expanding a protected area.