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Species Information
Summary: Subgenus Sericeocybe. Features include 1) silky, dry, streaky, cap that is light blue-gray when young becoming brownish but retaining lilac along the edge, 2) gills that are violet-tinted at first but become dull brown then rusty brown, 3) silky, dry, slender, usually club-shaped stem that is streaked with white and brown and has violet tint near top, 4) rusty brown spore deposit, 5) growth especially under birch, and 6) nearly round to broadly elliptic, rough spores. |Most of what has been identified as Cortinarius anomalus in the Pacific Northwest is said to be Cortinarius anomalovelatus, but note that Siegel(2) mentions there are at least five undescribed species in the Cortinarius anomalus group from California - the group they are referring to are told "by their relatively small size, silvery bluish to lilac or beige colors, and subglobose spores", (Seigel(2)). |Cortinarius azureus is a similar species which has been synonymized with Cortinarius anomalus. Many collections previously identified as Cortinarius azureus are probably also Cortinarius anomalovelatus. One BC collection of Cortinarius "azureus", F17144 at the University of British Columbia, from Jordan River in British Columbia, seems to match European Cortinarius anomalus in the molecular research of Harrower et al. (P. Kroeger, pers. comm.).
Cortinarius anomalus group has been reported from WA (Ammirati(5)). Cortinarius anomalus group has also been reported from OR (Kauffman(5)), and AK (Ammirati(10)). A member of the Cortinarius anomalus group, Cortinarius anomalovelatus, was initially described from WA (Ammirati(17)) and there is a description and photograph from CA (Siegel(2)). There are many collections as Cortinarius anomalus, C. azureus, and C. anomalovelatus from BC at the University of British Columbia. It has been reported from BC (Kroeger(3)). Breitenbach(5) give the range or Cortinarius anomalus as North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Phillips(1) says C. anomalus is found over most of North America, and Kauffman(3) gives the range of C. anomalus as New England to MI, CO.
Cap: 1.4-1.8cm across, "rounded convex with the edge inrolled to incurved"; brownish avellaneous to brown, more or less clay overall to 'indian yellow' (Kornerup(3) color), disc slightly darker than margin; dry, shiny, appearing finely streaked when fresh, "when young with a coating of silvery fibrils, in places fibrils pallid buff in mass", (Ammirati(10)), 3-5cm across, "hemispheric than broadly convex; often tinged gray-violet at first, then grayish buff; the surface covered with fine hairs that give a silky sheen", (Phillips), 2.6-6cm across, hemispheric becoming convex to flat and sometimes slightly umbonate, margin incurved and joined to stem "by a whitish, filamentous cortina when young, later even and acute"; not hygrophanous, gray-blue when young, later browning from the center outward to gray-brown or red-brown, marginal zone usually remaining bluish gray; "smooth, dull, dry, finely fibrillose-tomentose", (Breitenbach), light blue-gray, developing brown to red-brown tones when old and retaining a bit of lilac along the edge; dry, fibrillose becoming somewhat finely scaly when old, (Trudell)
Flesh: 0.5cm thick on disc, solid, firm; whitish to white with slight violet at stem top, (Ammirati(10)), "pallid with strong purplish tints", especially inside stem top, (Phillips), thin; whitish to watery gray, blue-violet toward stem, (Breitenbach)
Gills: "deeply adnexed-notched, subdistant, not ventricose"; "dull brownish over a slight violet color or dull brown with a slight violet cast, in older specimens dull medium brown, edges whitish to pale", (Ammirati(10)), adnate to emarginate; violaceous or with violaceous tints, becoming rusty brown, (Phillips), broadly attached, 54-66 reaching stem, 3-7 subgills between neighboring gills, broad; gray-violet when young, later brownish violet, rust brown when old; edges slightly crenate [scalloped], (Breitenbach)
Stem: 4-5cm x 0.3-1.1cm, club-shaped to narrowly enlarged or slightly bulbous, narrowly hollow; top tinted violet, base white, "otherwise streaked with brown and white or slightly violet, with silvery white fibrils on surface as well as a series of pallid buff patches or zones from universal veil", (Ammirati(10)), 4-9cm x 0.7-1.8cm, "the base usually swollen, sometimes almost bulbous"; at first with violet tints, especially at top, "then pallid, with distinct pale grayish or yellowish bands of veil material", (Phillips), 4.0-8.0 x 0.4-1cm, cylindric, "base sometimes slightly thickened", "fragile, solid when young, hollow when old, surface when young densely covered with a whitish to cream-colored fibrillose tomentum on a gray-blue background from the base up to the annular zone in the upper third, tomentum usually forming irregular bands, blue- and gray-violet above the annular zone", (Breitenbach)
Veil: leaves grayish or yellowish bands on stem, (Phillips), whitish, filamentous cortina when young (Breitenbach)
Microscopic spores: spores (7.4)8.1-11.1(13.1) x (5.2)5.6-7.8(8.1) microns, in face view nearly round to broadly elliptic, in side view nearly round or short-elliptic to occasionally elliptic or somewhat slipper-shaped, verruculose but larger elliptic spores may appear smooth, medium brown to yellow brown with ornamentation dark brown, no distinct plage; basidia 4-spored, 33.3-44.4 x 8.9-9.6 microns, clavate to broadly clavate, colorless with globules and granules or containing pale yellow pigment; cystidia none; clamp connections present throughout fruitbody, (Ammirati(10)), spores 7-9 x 6-7 microns, nearly round, rough, (Phillips), spores 7.4-9.2 x 5.9-7 microns, nearly round, moderately verrucose, reddish yellow; basidia 4-spored, 28-37 x 8-10 microns, clavate, with clamp connection; no pleurocystidia, marginal cells not abundant, 16-25 x 5-8 microns, cylindric to clavate; cap cuticle composed of a thin layer of periclinal hyphae 3.5-9 microns wide, colorless to light yellow, septa with clamp connections, subcutis of oval to allantoid cells 10-20 microns across, (Breitenbach), "cap cuticle with a layer of enlarged, isodiametric cells just beneath the surface layer of radially arranged hyphae", (Trudell)
Spore deposit: rusty brown (Phillips), rust brown (Breitenbach)
Habitat / Range
in coniferous and mixed woods, especially under birch (Phillips), single or a few together under Salix (willow) and Betula nana (dwarf birch) on Alaskan tundra, (Ammirati(10)), usually gregarious, more rarely single, in coniferous and hardwood forests, (Breitenbach), late summer to fall (Bacon)
Similar Species
Cortinarius caninus has a browner cap when young, and browner and more strongly developed veil remnants on the stem, (Trudell(4)). Cortinarius azureus has stronger violet to bluish colors and lacks pallid buff veil zones, (Ammirati(10)). C. azureus has 1) darker colors, the cap being violet-gray and the gills dark violet, 2) normally more robust stature, and 3) veil remnants that are thinner, often not discernible on stem, (Soop(1)). But C. azureus Fr. is considered a synonym in the online Species Fungorum, accessed June 19, 2012. Cortinarius malachius lacks the belts on the stem (although it has a distinct annular zone when young) and differs in spore size, (Breitenbach(5)). Cortinarius alboviolaceus has elliptic spores (among other differences). See also SIMILAR section of Cortinarius depauperatus.
