The deceiver (Laccaria laccata) is a small, common woodland mushroom of the Northern Hemisphere, named for its maddening habit of changing colour and shape as it dries — from a wet tawny reddish-orange to a pale buff — so that a single troop can look like half a dozen different species. Its jewel-toned cousin, the AMETHYST DECEIVER (Laccaria amethystina), wears a startling deep violet all over when fresh, one of the most beautiful colours in the European woods. Both are modest, mild edibles gathered as part of a mixed forager's basket rather than sought for themselves: thin-fleshed and unremarkable in flavour, they are known above all by their thick, widely spaced, flesh-pink or lilac gills and a tough, fibrous, twisted stem. They grow in mycorrhizal partnership with forest trees, springing up in troops across damp summer and autumn woodland.