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Species Information
Summary: Subgenus Phlegmacium. Outstanding features are a sickening-sweetish aromatic odor, a viscid cap, and the bright lilac color of both the cap and the sheath on the stem. Other features include lavender to pallid flesh that does not change in color when cut, and lilac to whitish gills. The variety bubalinovelatus M.M. Moser & Ammirati, described from Del Norte County in northwestern CA, differs only in "the color of the veil which has a buffy color and forms a thin belt and patches in the lower part of the stipe".
Cortinarius subfoetidus was described from WA. Arora says it is most common in northern ID according to A.H. Smith, and limited to the Pacific Northwest, (Arora). Range is BC south to OR, (Bessette). Var. bubalinovelatus was described from northwestern CA.
Cap: (3)4-10cm across, obtusely umbonate to flat; lilac overall, fading to buff or pallid on the disc, the margin retaining its lilac color; glutinous, appressed-fibrillose beneath the gluten, margin lacerated when old, (Smith), 4-10cm across, broadly convex, becoming flat or broadly umbonate, the margin incurved at first, often becoming torn; "bluish lavender to lilac, fading to pale pinkish tan on the disc and remaining lilac toward the margin at maturity"; "smooth, slimy when fresh, somewhat streaked beneath the gluten", (Bessette), 7-9(10)cm across, convex with involute margin, then flat and margin incurved and often remaining sharply so; "a very bright and beautiful bluish violaceous color..., when drying becoming somewhat paler, but retaining this color even with age, only central part discoloring and becoming grayish blue or grayish, rarely somewhat ochraceous or slightly brownish, sometimes spotted"; glutinous, (Moser)
Flesh: thick 2cm); "bluish lavender" or brighter at first but soon becoming pallid, not changing when cut; in stem "concolorous with pileus at first and quickly becoming pallid", (Smith), thick, soft; "bluish lavender at first, quickly becoming pinkish white, unchanging when cut or bruised", (Bessette), pale bluish in cap, in some areas darker marbled, in stem whitish, (Moser)
Gills: adnexed to subdecurrent, close, 2 tiers of subgills, moderately broad (0.5-0.8cm), broadest in middle; colored as cap when young, near "sayal brown" when mature, (Smith), adnexed to slightly decurrent, close, moderately broad, with 2 tiers of subgills; whitish becoming pinkish white, finally pale cinnamon brown when mature, not staining when bruised, (Bessette), emarginate, close, 55-70 reaching stem, 1-3 subgills between neighboring gills, (12)13-15 per centimeter at margin, 0.5-1cm broad, strongly tapering toward cap margin; pale grayish in buttons, later near cap margin pale grayish-blue, but most parts buff to gray-brown, (Moser), adnexed to notched to adnate (Arora)
Stem: 5-8cm x 1-2cm, equal, solid, with a "bluish lavender" fibrillose sheath ending in a median lavender fibrillose zone, "color of sheath soon fading and leaving only the colored zone", "when old whitish over all, not changing color when handled"; top silky, fibrillose from pale lavender fibrils, (Smith), 2.5-9cm x 1-2.5cm, nearly equal, solid; whitish in upper part, covered on lower part by silky sheath that is pale lilac in upper portion, pinkish to whitish in lower portion, (Bessette), 4-13cm x 0.8-2.5cm, clavate; bluish violaceous, "sometimes only up to the cortina, occasionally also up to the top", the base dingy whitish to light buff; "dry, smooth to floccose up to the cortina, but occasionally some slightly glutinous spots can be observed" due to slime dropping down from the cap, (Moser)
Veil: universal veil fibrillose, forming pale lavender to violet sheath over lower stem, (Arora), "partial veil pale lavender to whitish, cobwebby", (Bessette), var. bubalinovelatus agrees with type except buffy universal veil that forms a thin belt and patches on lower stem, (Moser)
Odor: "very heavy-aromatic to subfoetid (somewhat sweetish and nauseous)", (Smith); "sickeningly sweet and unpleasant", (Bessette), sickeningly sweet odor has been likened to overripe pears, (Arora), "not like overripe pears", (Stuntz)
Taste: mild (Smith), not distinctive (Bessette)
Microscopic spores: spores 7-9(10) x 5-5.5 microns, nearly elliptic to slightly inequilateral, rusty brown in KOH, outer wall wrinkled, basidia 4-spored, pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not seen, (Smith), spores 7-10 x 5-5.5 microns, (Bessette), spores 7.6-10.6 x 4.4-5.9 microns, elliptic to somewhat almond-shaped, moderately verrucose; basidia 4-spored, 30-35 x 7-8 microns, subcylindric to clavate; no cheilocystidia; clamp connections present, (Moser)
Spore deposit: pale cinnamon brown (Bessette), rusty brown (Arora)
Habitat / Range
scattered under conifers (Smith), scattered under conifers, September to November, (Bessette), single to widely scattered or in small groups in duff and moss under conifers, especially with hemlock and/or fir, (Arora), fall
Similar Species
Cortinarius balteatus has larger spores, 10-11 x 5.5-6 microns, (Bessette). Cortinarius balteatocumatilis is differentiated by larger spores: a collection from Olympic Hot Springs has an odor like C. pyriodorus and spores 8-11 x 4.5-6 microns, (Smith). C. balteatocumatilis is much more robust, with the stem typically at least 2cm wide, but is similar in odor and color (Arora). Cortinarius occidentalis (''mutabilis'') has violet gills at first, and the flesh stains purple when cut. Cortinarius citriolens, described in 1999 from Wyoming, has strong odor of lemon pelargonium and spores 10.6-13.1 x 5.9-7.1 microns and almond-shaped to sublimoniform [somewhat lemon-shaped] as opposed to 7.6-10.6 x 4.4-5.9 microns and elliptic to somewhat almond-shaped for C. subfoetidus, (Moser).
