Cortinarius uliginosus

Description
Mushroom Identification
Look-Alikes
History
Cortinarius uliginosus Synonyms

Description

Cortinarius uliginosus is an inedible conical to convex orange color mushroom. It is covered in yellowish radial fibrils most noticeably near the margin. Typically occurs in many parts of northern and central Europe but rarely in Mediterranean countries.

This mushroom is a member of the subgenus Dermocybe, which includes several deadly poisonous webcaps. It should be regarded as 'suspect' and may contain dangerous toxins, so it should not be gathered for eating.

Common names: Marsh Webcap.

Mushroom Identification

Cap

Young caps often start of conical, becoming umbonate-convex 1.5 to 5cm in diameter and often developing a wavy margin. Cap color is variable but usually tawny orange, coppery orange, or occasionally brick red with the margin slightly paler than the central region; it is covered in yellowish radial fibrils most noticeably near the margin.
Stem

Cylindrical, 2.5-6,5cm tall and 0.3-1cm in diameter, occasionally with a slightly swollen base; surface longitudinally fibrillose and colored like the cap; flesh yellow with a reddish tinge.
Gills

The adnate gills are close; initially, bright lemon-yellow, tuning saffron to ochre-buff or tawny-buff.
Spores

Ellipsoidal, with a finely roughened surface, 8-11 x 5-6µm; inamyloid.
Spore Print

Rusty brown.
Odor and Taste

Odor, when cut or crushed, of radish. Tasting this possibly toxic toadstool is inadvisable.
Habitat & Ecological Role

Ectomycorrhizal, in damp soil with deciduous woods, usually in willow or alder carr woodland. In northern Europe, this webcap is found most often with willows beside lakes, rivers, bogs and marshes.

Look-Alikes

Cortinarius sanguineus

Has a blood-red cap and blood-red gills and stem.
Cortinarius semisanguineus

Has blood-red gills but otherwise, it is similar macroscopically to the Marsh Webcap.
Cortinarius salignus

Forms mycorrhiza with willows but has a darker color.
Cortinarius alnophilus

Forms mycorrhiza with alder and has pale yellow plates.
Cortinarius holoxanthus

Lives on coniferous needles.

History

This webcap was described in 1860 by British mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley, who gave it the scientific binomial name Cortinarius uliginosus by which it is generally referred to today.

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 fibers connecting the stem to the rim of the cap rather than a solid membrane.

The specific epithet uliginosus, which comes from Latin, means 'of marshes or bogs' and is a reference to the usual growing habitat of this webcap mushroom.