Hello; Just what is a Wine-cap Stropharia? A Wine-cap Stropharia is a large purple-ish mushroom that can be used in any dish that button mushrooms or portabellas can. Sometimes they can grow to monstrous sizes. I've harvested specimens as large as 12 inches in diameter. When fresh Wine-caps have a reddish to purple coloration on their buttons. This color soon fades to a silvery grey. The gills under the mushroom are grey when fresh but darken to almost black with age. Wine-caps are also known as King Stropharias because of their size. Another interesting characteristic about Wine-caps is that they smell like potato's when fresh. Can you believe it? A large purple mushroom with grey gills that grows to monstrous size and smells like potato's? I gotta be making this up but I'm not.
