One of the most eye-catching mushrooms in our woods is currently popping up just about everywhere you look. The Viscid Purple Cort, a.k.a. Cortinarius iodes, is a common stunner that rises out of the leaf litter and calls attention to itself with its slimy cap. While it's marginally edible, the mushroom is not sought out by fungus hunters, except, perhaps, those interested in a taxonomic challenge. According to Michael Kuo, and his authoritative MushroomExpert.com site, C. iodes has a lookalike cousin that goes by the name C. iodeoides. "Virtually the only way to tell the two species apart without a microscope," states Kuo, "is to lick the slime: bitter for C. iodeoides, mild for C. iodes." I think I'll pass. It's enough to know that the one species is most likely two. They're both exquisite... and that's enough. The slime can wait.