Summary:
Subgenus Telamonia. Section Leiocastanei. Features include 1) a hygrophanous, reddish brown to brown, smooth, somewhat waxy glossy cap with the margin whitish-fibrillose and when moist pellucid-striate, 2) adnexed to emarginate, medium-spaced gills that are strong brown with paler edges, 3) an almost equal to club-shaped stem that is whitish-fibrillose becoming brown, and 4) microscopic characters.

Cap:
1.5-4cm across, hemispheric to somewhat conic, soon expanding to almost flat; strongly hygrophanous, reddish brown to brown; "smooth, somewhat waxy glossy", margin whitish fibrillose, up to 0.3cm pellucid-striate when moist

Flesh:
in cap brown, in stem marbled hygrophanous, light brown to brown, somewhat darker toward base, especially when old, stem flesh drying brownish white

Gills:
adnexed to emarginate; moderately broad, moderately thick, medium spaced; strong brown, edges paler at least when young

Stem:
3.5-5cm x 0.3-0.7cm at tip, 0.5-1.6cm wide at base, almost cylindric to clavate; whitish silky-fibrillose, when old and with handling, fibrillosity vanishes and stem surface colored more like flesh

Veil:
universal veil white, sparse

Odor:
indistinct

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.5-7.5 x 4.0-4.5 microns, amygdaloid [almond-shaped], "moderately verrucose, somewhat more strongly ornamented at the apex, moderately to fairly strongly dextrinoid, somewhat dark colored", basidia 4-spored, 22-28 x 6-7 microns, clavate, colorless or olivaceous yellow-brown in Melzer''s reagent, colorless or pale brown in KOH; cap cuticle duplex, epicutis thin, hyphae 3-8 microns wide, "smooth to finely encrusted", colorless in Melzer''s reagent and KOH, in Melzer''s reagent "also some hyphae with few refractive granules" (1-2 microns) "or pale yellow contents were observed", hypoderm distinct, elements 30-70 x 15-35 microns, colorless and smooth in Melzer''s reagent and KOH; trama hyphae 4-15 microns wide, "pale olivaceous yellowish brown, and distinctly zebra-striped encrusted" in Melzer''s reagent, in KOH pale brown, +/- thick walled, "walls pale brown, only some zebra-striped encrusted, encrustation difficult to observe"; clamp connections present

Spore deposit:
[presumably a shade of brown]

Notes:
The description is derived from Niskanen(1). Cortinarius aavae is known from QC (including holotype) and BC (Niskanen(1)). Harrower(1) assigned a BC collection sequence 113 to Cortinarius aavae. Morphological correlation is desirable.

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