Summary:
Subgenus Phlegmacium. Features include a glutinous, yellowish to ochraceous brown cap with darker appressed scales in the center, very pale lilac gills that soon become grayish brown, a grayish white stem with a marginate bulb, yellowish universal veil, conifer forest habitat, rusty brown spore deposit, almond-shaped to lemon-shaped spores, and KOH reaction. |Cortinarius calochrous (or Cortinarius callochrous) is a complex of taxonomically difficult taxa (some of the names have been spelled callochrous, but here only the spelling calochrous is used). |MycoBank, accessed Jul 21, 2020, gave the current name as Cortinarius calochrous var. coniferarum (M.M. Moser) Nezdojm. |Bojantchev(2) said in 2011 that C. piceae Froslev et al. was formerly known as C. calochrous var. coniferarum (M.M. Moser) Nezdojm. An explanation follows. In 2006 seven new species close to C. calochrous were described in Europe and a key to 15 close species in Europe was presented, (Froslev(1)). Later the same year two further species were described including Cortinarius piceae Froslev, T.S. Jeppesen & Brandrud. In the description of that species they say that it corresponds to the taxon most often treated as Cortinarius calochrous var. coniferarum Quadr. (e.g. in Brandrud et al. 1990). They chose a new type rather than just a new name, in part because they suspected that the original 1960 description of Phlegmacium calochroum var. coniferarum M.M. Moser covered C. piceae and at least one other taxon. They say it is "characterized by the warmly yellow colours on the pileus, which becomes darker brownish yellow, very pale violaceous colours of the lamellae, a pale stipe, and a brownish alkaline reaction on the pileus and a negative reaction on the bulbipellis". It is "separated from most other co-occurring calochroid species by the thoroughly coloured pileus (including the margin) and the non-pink alkaline reaction of bulbipellis and pileus". (Froslev(2)). |The Brandrud(1) description given here is that from Brandrud 1990 of Cortinarius callochrous subsp. coniferarum var. coniferarum (Moser) Nezd. |Brandrud(1) also describes two other varieties of Cortinarius calochrous subsp. coniferarum. Var. haasii (Moser) Brand. differs (1995) in large veil remnants on the cap, usually pale cap margin, a different distribution of the violaceous colors (gills persistently lilac to grayish lilac, stem lilac, later grayish- to yellowish white, lilac tinge most distinct and persistent at apex), a negative reaction with KOH, and yellow mycelial strands. Var. barbaricus differs mainly by the beautiful bluish lilac color of gills and stem. Froslev(2) elevate var. barbaricus to species level as Cortinarius barbaricus (Brandrud) Froslev, T.S. Jeppesen & Brandrud, and Froslev(2) also use a species name for var. haasii - Cortinarius haasii (M.M. Moser) M.M. Moser. |Cortinarius coniferarum (M.M. Moser) Moenne-Locc. & Reumaux is a different species in the C. multiformis group.

Gills:
crowded; very pale lilac, almost grayish white, soon grayish brown (the bluish tinge soon fading), (Brandrud), crowded; pale violaceous to almost gray, soon ocher (-violaceous), (Froslev(2) who also refer to the gills as "(almost) colourless"), faintly violaceous gray (Knudsen)

Stem:
3-6cm x 0.7-1.2cm, with strongly marginate bulb (up to 3cm wide); grayish white (sometimes with a tinge of lilac at apex), (Brandrud), 4-6cm x 0.7-1.2cm, with marginate bulb (up to 2.5cm wide); "whitish when young, then more or less yellowish to brownish", (Froslev(2)), 4-7cm x 0.7-1.2cm, with bulb; whitish, with yellowish veil at bulb margin, (Knudsen)

Veil:
universal veil "yellowish, forming patches at bulb margin (visible at least on very young specimens)", (Brandrud), universal veil on bulb margin "sparse to fairly abundant, slightly viscid, when young yellowish to yellowish white at bulb margin", when old slightly brownish; cortina "fairly abundant, whitish", (Froslev(2))

Odor:
somewhat earth-like when old (Brandrud), "earth/dust like" (Froslev(2))

Taste:
slight (Phillips), indistinct (Froslev(2))

Microscopic spores:
spores 10-11.5 x 6-7.5 microns, amygdaliform [almond-shaped] to citriform [lemon-shaped], very distinctly and coarsely verrucose; gill edge with clavate sterile cells, (Brandrud), no pleurocystidia, marginal cells 18-25 x 3.5-12 microns, cylindric to clavate, (Breitenbach), 9.5-11 x 6-7 microns, amygdaliform [almond-shaped], "distinctly and coarsely verrucose"; basidia 4-spored, 9-11 microns wide; gill edge more or less fertile, (Froslev(2)), spores 9.5-10.5 x 6-7 microns, amygdaloid [almond-shaped] to slightly citriform [lemon-shaped], coarsely verrucose, (Knudsen)

Spore deposit:
rusty brown (Phillips)

Notes:
Pacific Northwest records of Cortinarius calochrous including WA and BC are probably mostly subspecies coniferarum. Harrower(1) presents DNA data indicating the presence of Cortinarius piceae in BC. Schalkwijk-Barendsen(1) reports Cortinarius calochrous from BC (at Mt. Robson). The Harrower(1) study has a BC specimen 33 which is identified as Cortinarius piceae. Kernaghan(1) report subsp. coniferarum with violet stem apices from western AB. Froslev(2) studied collections from Italy, Norway, and Sweden.

EDIBILITY

no

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Cortinarius calochrous Fr. ssp. coniferarum (M.M. Moser) Brandrud Nord.