E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Cortinarius glaucocephalus
no common name
Cortinariaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi
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Distribution of Cortinarius glaucocephalus
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Species Information

Summary:
Subgenus Phlegmacium. Features include dark bluish green or dark blue or nearly blackish glutinous cap that becomes more blue-green, dark blue young gills, dry stem with marginate bulb, the stem grayish blue at top, increasingly blue green downward, habitat under conifers, and lemon-shaped spores. The description is derived from Moser(9). The attached Michael Beug photographs represent sequenced material.

Cortinarius glaucocephalus is found at least in OR and CA, (Moser(9)), and has been sequenced from BC (Liimatainen(2)).
Cap:
(2.3)4-7.5(10.7)cm across, hemispheric, then convex to flat; dark bluish green often nearly blackish, "dark grayish blue-green", "greenish slate black", later with more blue-green colors, "American green", margin in some specimens near "mignonette green", "deep lichen green", disc with brownish colors, dingy red-brown, to umber brown, sometimes larger parts pale blue-green; glutinous
Flesh:
in cap dingy whitish with olivaceous hue, in stem blue, marbled, "occasionally also with slight pink hue", in bulb dingy whitish with some yellowish or yellowish brown spots and tinges
Gills:
rounded adnate to emarginate, close, 100 reaching stem, 3 subgills between neighboring gills, 19-20 per centimeter at margin, 0.4-0.6cm broad (2/3 of cap context); at first dark blue, "slate blue", "dark plumbago blue", "madder blue", "Windsor blue", later paler and mixed with gray, "drab"; edges eroded
Stem:
3-6cm x 1.2-1.9cm, the mostly narrow, marginate bulb 1.7-3cm wide; grayish blue at top, "Dutch blue" to "deep Dutch blue", downwards increasingly bluish green, glaucous, "glaucous blue", toward bulb more greenish, "grape green", "mignonette green", but much paler, silky shiny, the bulb margin at first pale greenish, soon yellow-brown to red-brown
Veil:
universal veil at first greenish, soon yellow-brown to red-brown, cortina scanty and fleeting, on expanded fruitbodies not recognizable
Odor:
somewhat musty, fungoid, weak
Microscopic spores:
spores 8.2-9.4 x 4.1-5 microns, sublimoniform to limoniform [somewhat lemon-shaped to lemon-shaped], verrucose, apex smooth; basidia 4-spored, 27-32 x 7-8 microns, clavate; without cheilocystidia; clamp connections present
Spore deposit:
[presumably a shade of brown]

Habitat / Range

in mixed forests with Tsuga (hemlock), Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir), Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa Pine), Abies (fir), and Arctostaphylos manzanita (Manzanita)

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Edibility

Additional Photo Sources

Related Databases

Species References

Moser(9) (colors with quotation marks from Ridgway(1)), (Liimatainen(2))

References for the fungi

General References