Appearance
The violet fruit bodies can grow to a height and width of 7 cm. The smooth, polished surface of the peridium is sticky. When dry, the peridium becomes brown and develops wrinkles. The stout stipe is a pale violet colour with yellow tints at the base. It measures 3–9 cm long by 1–2 cm thick at the base and tapers towards the top. The texture of the stipe surface is fibrillose, and minute grooves can be seen running up and down its length. The interior of the peridium, the gleba, is pale reddish brown in colour and labyrinthiform in form. Individual cells or compartments in the gleba are typically 1–2 mm long with thick partitions. Young fruit bodies that are still beneath the earth are white; as they mature and emerge from the ground, the exposure to light causes the color to change to violet.In deposit, the spores are chestnut brown. Microscopic examination reveals that they are egg-shaped with one end rounded and the other end pointed, measuring 12–17 by 8–11 μm. The spore surface is covered with minute wart-like outgrowths.
Distribution
"Cortinarius porphyroideus" is an ectomycorrhizal fungus, associated with hard beech and black beech. The species has a highly restricted distribution, known only from East Harbour Regional Park in Lower Hutt, Wellington Region of Aotearoa New Zealand.References:
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