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

Summary:
Subgenus Telamonia Section Bovini Subsection Bovini. Cortinarius bovinus group includes medium to large Telamonia species with brown to dark brown fruitbodies, stem often clavate to bulbous (rarely cylindric), flesh more or less brown, when old becoming dark brown at least in the base of the stem, universal veil white, brownish white or grayish white, in some species becoming grayish brown when old, mycelium whitish, odor in most species mild or slightly radish-like, when dried with dark brown to blackish brown cap and pale grayish brown to grayish brown stem, spores +/- amygdaloid to elliptic, growing in coniferous and hardwood forests, many of the species calcicolous or calciphilous. This is a paraphrase of Section Bovini M.M. Moser as amended by Liimatainen, Niskanen, and Kytov. Note the absence of blue colors. The Smith(12) description below is for Cortinarius bovinus Fr.

The species was reported from at least WA (Smith(12)). Cortinarius bovinus or similar species are reported (see Breitenbach(5)) from Europe, Asia, North Africa. It is unclear which of the species close to C. bovinus is represented by the Smith(12) observations in WA. As summarized by Liimatainen(1), Niskanen(4) studied Cortinarius bovinus Fr. and "morphologically similar species occurring in boreal coniferous forests in rich forest soils in northern Europe". Seven species were recognized, all belonging to section Bovini (subgenus Telamonia). Four of them, C. bovinus Fr., C. bovinaster, C. bovinatus, and C. oulankaensis, formed a well-supported clade inside section Bovini (Bovini s. str.). By the time that Niskanen(4) was published, the species were only known from Europe, except C. oulankaensis which also occurs in Canada in BC. (Liimatainen). Liimatainen(1) then described Cortinarius bovarius from AK and AB. Cortinarius anisatus and Cortinarius neofurvolaesus are also in Section Bovini and both have been documented from BC (Harrower(1)). The neotype of C. bovinus Fr. is from Finland.

Cap:
4-8cm across, obtuse becoming nearly flat or broadly umbonate; hygrophanous, dull brown to dull tan, margin more or less fringed with "clay color" to pallid fascicles of fibrils; appears dry from appressed fibrils^, (Smith)

Flesh:
thick, brittle; hygrophanous, watery-brown fading, in stem watery-punctate and pale dull brown^, (Smith)

Gills:
adnexed, subdistant, broad, 3 tiers of subgills; grayish brown when young, pale cinnamon-brown when old; edges fringed, (Smith)

Stem:
5-8cm x 1-2cm at top, widening to 2-3cm at base, solid; avellaneous [gray brown], lower part belted with pale buff fibrillose rings from universal veil, (Smith)

Veil:
universal veil alutaceous ("clay color"), leaves pale buff fibrillose rings on lower stem, (Smith)

Odor:
not distinctive (Smith)

Taste:
not distinctive (Smith)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10 x 6-7 microns, broadly elliptic, tuberculate roughened, dark rusty brown in KOH under microscope; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not seen, (Smith)

Spore deposit:
red-brown (Buczacki)