Well cooked, in small pieces, it is one of the very best.
H. purpu´reus Pk.—purpureus, purple. Subiculum effused, purple, permeating, transforming and discoloring the matrix; perithecia minute, sunk in the subiculum, the ostiola emergent, black; asci cylindrical; spores fusiform, uniseptate, purple, with a cusp-like point at each end, 35–40µ long, 7.5µ broad, oozing out and forming beautiful purple masses or patches on the surface of the matrix.
Pennsylvania. August. Charles McIlvaine.
The species is similar in all respects to H. lactifluorum, except in color. It is apparently parasitic on some species of Lactarius, but the host plant is so transformed and discolored that the species is not recognizable. Peck, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, Vol. 25, No. 6.
H. purpureus Pk. was sent by the writer to Professor Peck in August, 1897, who wrote: “This is a beautiful thing and as I find nothing like it described, I have given it a name.”
Of itself H. purpureus is a minute parasitic fungus as above described. But it possesses the power of so altering the structure—changing form, shape and appearance—of the fungus upon which it has taken its abode that the host-plant, be it Cantharellus cibarius, Craterellus cantharellus or one of the Lactari, or whatever the species, becomes difficult to recognize, so that it is not yet certain upon which species it is parasitic. It may be upon many.
The present plant seems to be parasitic upon one of the Lactarii. It therefore becomes necessary to describe the host as it appears when possessed by the parasite. The plant is variable in shape from an irregular nodule to a distorted-capped, short-stemmed mass, 2–4 in. across, 1–3 in. high, hard, brittle, coarse in appearance and rough to the touch; deep orange, wholly or in part stained with a beautiful purple. The purple juice exudes and dyes everything with which it comes in contact. The growth is very heavy for its size.
To all appearances it is the same host as is attacked by Hypomyces lactifluorum, resembling it in every particular excepting in the purple stain and juice.
It is frequent in open oak and chestnut woods, but prefers oak. It grows from among leaves or from grassy spots. August to October.
While it is beautiful in its coloring it is not inviting in appearance as an edible. Yet sliced, cut small and stewed for twenty minutes it is one of the very best fungi I have eaten.