Cortinarius verrucisporus Thiers & Smith
Mycologia 61: 533. 1969.

Common Name: none

• Pileus

  Cap up to 3.0-7.0 cm broad, convex, expanding to plano-convex; margin incurved, then decurved, often wavy; surface at first pallid to pale-buff with innate to appressed fibrils, these becoming yellowish to tawny in age, the disc then often dingy reddish-brown; context firm, cream-buff, unchanging, up to 1.0 cm at the disc; odor and taste mild.

• Lamellae

  Gills close, adnate to notched, broad, up to 1.0 cm wide, pallid in youth, becoming dull rusty-brown from maturing spores; lamellulae in 3-4 series.

• Stipe

  Stipe 1.0-3.0 cm long, 1.0-2.0 cm thick, relatively short, equal to bulbous, if the latter, often marginate; surface covered by a yellowish, fibrillose, partial veil remaining attached to the cap margin at maturity; spores dull rusty-brown, liberated via radial tears in the partial veil.

• Spores

  Spores 11.0-13.0 x 7.0-8.5 µm, elliptical to ovate in face-view, inequilateral in profile, i.e. flattened on one side with an opposing belly, thick-walled, coarsely warted, hilar appendage inconspicuous; spores dull, rusty-brown in deposit.

• Habitat

  Solitary to scattered, buried in duff of montane conifers; occasional during the spring; rare in the fall.

• Edibility

  Unknown.

• Comments

  Fieldmarks of Cortinarius verrucisporus include a yellowish to tawny cap and a similarly colored, fibrillose veil that remains attached to the cap margin at maturity. Like its more common cousin, Cortinarius magnivelatus, it is often found well buried in montane conifer duff. See "Comments" under Cortinarius magnivelatus for related Cortinarii. Compare also with Thaxterogaster pingue, a fall fruiting species. This secotioid relative has a dull yellow-brown to brown, sticky cap that is fused to the stipe at maturity and crumpled, deformed gills.

• References

  Thiers, H.D. & Smith, A.H. (1969). Hypogeous Cortinarii. Mycologia 61: 526-536.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Michael Wood: Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP) -- note the brown gills seen through the broken cortina
  • Michael Wood: Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP) -- note the very heavy cortina
  • Michael Wood: Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP) -- rusty brown veil remnants
  • Michael Wood: Cortinarius magnivelatus & Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP)
  • Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan: Cortinarius verrucisporus (D)
  • Mushroom Observer: Cortinarius verrucisporus (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 443 (P)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)