Maybe this actually IS Murrill’s original subrubescens (type specimen collected under oak? in Gainesville, Florida), and what we call subrubescens in Europe should be named Albatrellus similis. Who can tell without sequencing this one and Murrill’s type collection..?

The spores are amyloid and the mushroom bruises yellow on the stipe. David Arora, in a private communication, states the following: “The photo you sent looks very much like what I know from Santa Cruz (a previous MO ob shows it from the Fair there), especially if it has yellow stains. It is associated there with pine. Ginns requested material of it and when I sent it to him he called it A. subrubescens based on a single character, its amyloid spores. He also broadened his published description (1997) to include the inky-colored cap but this is totally at odds with the north European species as Irene A. will tell you. Given its disjunct distribution and distinctive colors, I think it is an undescribed species but it can be accurately referred to for now as A. subrubescens sensu Ginns.”

there is no evidence that ovinus occurs in California at all. These oddballs, only reported from Mendocino and Santa Cruz here on MO, ought to be sequenced to find out where they belong. The fasciculate growth is not typical for ovinus either.

See page 128 in Smith, Smith & Weber. 1981. How to Know the Non-Gilled Mushrooms. “In the mountains of Idaho a form with a violaceous brown to brownish gray pileus often occurs with the typical form of A. ovinus.”
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Another purplish one from Santa Cruz
http://mushroomobserver.org/obs/18788

According to D. Arora in MD (p.557), in some forms the cap may be purple to purplish-grey throughout. Also it is found in coastal California under manzanita and conifers. And it may be A. avellaneus.

can become black-capped like this? Albatrellus ovinus doesn’t. I’m not convinced that you have ovinus in this area either..

Or are the caps blue (=flettii)?