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Species Information
Summary: Subgenus Telamonia, Section Bovini. Features include 1) inconspicuously hygrophanous brown cap with bluish gray tints towards the disc and often with whitish veil remnants at the extreme margin, 2) notched, milky coffee colored young gills, 3) cylindric to somewhat club-shaped stem that is white to beige, with white universal veil partly covering lower stem, 4) white to beige stem flesh that develops cavities, 5) growth under conifers in foothills and mountains during or soon after snow melt, 6) negative UV light reaction, and 7) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Bojantchev(6). Cortinarius eldoradoensis "fruits abundantly in late spring and early summer in the mountains of California during, or soon after snow melt".
In addition to its occurrence in CA where the holotype is from, a matching DNA sequence is from Mount Washington on Vancouver Island in BC.
Cap: 5-12cm across, convex to flat-convex without an umbo, margin involute [rolled in downwards], frequently flanging when old; "inconspicuously hygrophanous with occasional radial streaks", brown with bluish gray tints towards disc, "extreme margin frequently whitish" due to veil remnants; "smooth to glossy, innately fibrillose"
Flesh: white to beige, developing cavities along the length of the stem
Gills: sinuate, 0.7-2.2cm broad, moderately crowded, subgills abundant; "latte brown at first, turning rusty brown as the spores mature"; edges even
Stem: 4-8cm x 1.5-3cm, cylindric to subclavate [somewhat club-shaped]; "white to beige"; "sometimes shiny"
Microscopic spores: spores (8.0)8.5-10.5(11.3) x (4.8)5.0-6.0(6.5) microns, "variable in shape, mainly amygdaliform" [almond-shaped] but varying from oval to cylindric-amygdaliform to oblong-elliptic, "moderately verrucose, non-dextrinoid"; basidia 4-spored, 26-36 x 6-9 microns, cylindro-clavate, with clamp connection; cystidia not observed, gill edge sparsely fertile; clamp connections common on all septa
Spore deposit: rusty brown
Habitat / Range
scattered to subcespitose [somewhat cespitose] under conifers in foothills and mountains in spring during or soon after snow melt, often right along banks of melting snow
Similar Species
Several undescribed spring species of Telamonia can be separated based on UV fluorescence (Bojantchev(6)). Cortinarius wahkiacus fruits in late fall and has somewhat longer spores measuring 10-11.6 x 5.4-6.6 microns, compared with 8.5-10.5 x 5-6 microns for Cortinarius wahkiacus, (Li, G.J.(1)).
