Cortinarius privignoides
Description
Cortinarius privignoides is one of several white-stemmed, medium-sized, boring "Telamonias" in the group Cortinarius armeniacus, a European species that is separated from other species by its spongy stem base; its juvenile gills are brown ( rather than yellowish), the rim usually remains white, finely serrated when ripe; and its silky white brim. It has been reported under various conifers and birches.
Hydrocybe privignoides (Rob. Henry) M.M. Moser, 1953 is a synonym.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Mycorrhizal with conifers; growing gregariously; fall; eastern North America.
Cap
5-7 cm; convex or bell-shaped at first, becoming broadly bell-shaped, convex, or nearly flat; dry; silky; dull coppery orange to orangish brown; the margin with a thin white zone of silkiness.
Gills
Attached to the stem; close; dull brownish when young, becoming rusty brown; edges often whitish and finely jagged; covered by a whitish cortina when young.
Stem
5-6 cm long; up to 1.5 cm thick at the apex; tapering to a club-shaped, swollen base; dry; silky; whitish to faintly brownish (European descriptions list the stem as very faintly purplish to bluish when very young); sometimes with poorly defined ring zones; basal mycelium whitish.
Flesh
Whitish to pale brownish in the stem; firm in a cap, spongy in the stem base.
Odor
Not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions
KOH gray on the cap surface and flesh.
Spore Print
Rusty brown.
Microscopic Features
Spores 7-10 x 4.5-6 µ; ellipsoid; weakly verrucose. Cheilo- and pleurocystidia absent. Pileipellis is a thin epicutis of hyaline elements over a subcutis of wider, brownish, encrusted elements.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)