Pied Bleu

Other Names

Field blewit, blewit, blue stalk mushroom, the blue foot, rhodopaxille nu, blue leg

Latin Name

Lepista saeva

Usually Found In

Europe (in particular France, the UK, the Netherlands and Hungary), the USA

Season

October to January, but available all year

Things of visual wonder, pied bleu are small with dark purple stems and light blue caps. They grow slowly but surely amid a soft, silky layer of wispy white web in fairy ring formations on the forest floor. Like something out of science fiction, the weave of insulating natural material, rather like a blend of a spider’s web and cotton wool in texture, almost cocoons the mushrooms, protecting them from cold temperatures as autumn changes to winter.