He added that the first variety was often confused with Cortinarius violaceus, though it has a "nude" cap and no spidery web veil unlike the other species.

[6] English naturalist James Bolton gave it the name Agaricus bulbosa—the bulbous agaric—in his An History of Fungusses growing about Halifax in 1791.

[7] German mycologist Paul Kummer placed it in the genus Tricholoma in 1871,[8] the same year that English botanist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke placed it in Lepista.

Alvarado and colleagues declined to define the genera but proposed several options and highlighted the need for a wider analysis.

Some North American specimens are duller and tend toward tan, but usually have purplish tones on the stem and gills.

[17] Wood blewits can be confused with certain blue or purple species of the genus Cortinarius,[14] including the uncommon C. camphoratus,[18] many of which may be poisonous.

Cortinarius species produce a rusty brown spore print after several hours on white paper.

[17] The species also resembles Collybia brunneocephala, Clitocybe tarda, Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis, and Lepista subconnexa.

[14] The wood blewit is found in Europe and North America and is becoming more common in Australia and New Zealand, where it appears to have been introduced.

Soil analysis of soil containing mycelium from a wood blewit fairy ring under Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in southeast Sweden yielded fourteen halogenated low molecular weight organic compounds, three of which were brominated and the others chlorinated.

A young male was reported to have collected wood blewits to this end near Braidwood in southern New South Wales.