Cortinarius collinitus

What You Should Know

Cortinarius collinitus has an orange-brown cap, which is convex or has a wavy margin, and a sturdy white stem are good indicators of this species. Both the cap and the white stem are covered in the slimy remains of the veil which is blue-tinged. The mushroom occurs with spruce.

This mushroom is found in late summer in coniferous forests and, very occasionally, in broad-leaf woodland. This is an inedible mushroom and should never be collected because it can be confused with some of the other webcaps that are deadly poisonous.

Other names: Belted Slimy Cort, Smeared Cort, Pavučinec Plavooranžový (Czech Republic), Spættet Slørhat (Danish), Kangaslimaseitikki (Finnish), Cortinaire Collinéen/Lubrifié (French), Blaustieliger Schleimfuss (German), Pavalku Tīmeklene (Latvian), Violettfotad Slemspindling (Swedish).s

Cortinarius collinitus Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Mycorrhizal with conifers or hardwoods; growing scattered or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed in North America.

2. Cap

   3-9 cm; broadly conic to bell-shaped when young, becoming broadly bell-shaped or nearly convex; thickly slimy; bald; variable in color, ranging from fairly dark purplish brown when young and fresh to orangish brown or yellowish-brown; the margin finely lined.

3. Gills

   Attached to the stem; close; lilac to pale purple at first, becoming brownish or rusty brown; often with whitish edges.

4. Stem

   8-10 cm long; to nearly 2 cm thick; equal or tapering a little to the base; covered with lilac to purple slime when fresh; the slime often remaining as purplish patches, especially over the lower half--or disappearing to leave a whitish surface; often with a rusty ring zone.

5. Flesh

   Whitish to purplish.

6. Chemical Reactions

   KOH negative on cap surface and on flesh.

7. Spore Print

   Rusty brown to medium brown.

8. Microscopic Features

   Spores 12-16.5 x 6.5-8 µ; football-shaped; moderately to strongly verrucose. Pleuro- and cheilocystidia absent. Marginal cells present. Pileipellis an ixocutis with conspicuously clamped elements.

Cortinarius collinitus Look-Alikes

1. Cortinarius mucosus

   Typically has a white / cream stype without lilac tones, cap tends to be a bit darker brown, narrow spores, Conifer forest (grows with pine).

2. Cortinarius septentrionalis

   It May have lilac stipe, cap color is a brighter orange with dark disc. I have only seen this in AK (with birch).

3. Cortinarius trivialis

   Distinctive cracking of glutin on stipe, leading to girdles and scales on the stipe, blue-gray young gills. Deciduous forest. Occurs in PNW with cottonwood / poplar.

Cortinarius collinitus Taxonomy and Etymology

When British mycologist James Sowerby (1757 - 1822) described this webcap in 1797 he gave it the binomial scientific name Agaricus collinitus. It was another British mycologist, Samuel Frederick Gray (1766 - 1828) who, in 1821, transferred this species to the genus Cortinarius, thereby establishing its currently accepted scientific name as Cortinarius collinitus.

Synonyms of Cortinarius collinitus (Sowerby) Gray include Agaricus collinitus Sowerby, and Cortinarius muscigenus.

The generic name Cortinarius is a reference to the partial veil or cortina (meaning a curtain) that covers the gills when caps are immature. In the genus Cortinarius most species produce partial veils in the form of a fine web of radial fibres connecting the stem to the rim of the cap rather than a solid membrane.

Entirely justified but derived via a root that is not immediately obvious, the specific epithet collinitus comes from Latin and means 'smeared' or 'greased'.

Cortinarius collinitus Toxicity

This mushroom is generally regarded as 'suspect' and may contain dangerous toxins; it should not be gathered for eating. Some reddish-brown Cortinarius species with which the Blue-girdled Webcap could be confused contain the toxin orellanine, which if eaten destroys human kidneys and liver.

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: The original uploader was Cresus22 at English Wikipedia. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic)

Photo 3 - Author: Gerhard Koller (Gerhard) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)