Summary:
Subgenus Phlegmacium. Features in Brandrud''s description include 1) a glutinous, ochraceous grayish brown to red-brown cap, with the center sometimes umber brown and frequently silver shiny, 2) flesh that is violet in top of young stem, 3) blue to grayish violet gills that become grayish brown, 4) a blue-violet stem that fades to grayish violet and develops yellowish spots, 5) a marginate bulb on the stem, and 6) elliptic to somewhat almond-shaped spores that are densely verrucose. Descriptions from Brandrud and from Breitenbach are for Cortinarius glaucopus (Schaeff.: Fr.) S.F. Gray var. glaucopus. Brandrud says forms exist without a blue tinge in young gills and stem.

Cap:
4-10cm across, (hemi-)spheric, then flat-convex; ochraceous grayish brown (to red-brown), sometimes umber brown at center, margin at first with a faint grayish olive to olivaceous yellow tinge; glutinous, "finely to more often somewhat irregularly innately fibrillose", when young center "frequently silver shiny to rimy due to the veil", (Brandrud), 6-13cm across, "orangy yellow, margin greenish or olivaceous, or more olive-greenish all over"; markedly innately fibrous, glutinous, (Phillips), 5-12.5cm across, "convex becoming flat, margin curved under, wavy"; grayish, reddish brown in center and in streaks; slimy-viscid, (Lincoff(2))

Flesh:
when young violet in stem top, "most often distinctly ochraceous brown in bulb", especially when old, whitish in other parts, (Brandrud), "pallid yellowish white, usually tinged violaceous, at least in the upper stem", (Phillips)

Gills:
crowded; (light) grayish violet (usually blue when young), but soon grayish brown, (Brandrud), "adnate; strongly bluish-violet or more grayish violet", (Phillips), "attached, close to crowded, moderately broad"; purplish at first, becoming cinnamon brown, (Lincoff(2))

Stem:
4-10cm x 1-2cm, with a marginate bulb (up to 3.5cm); when young pale to distinctly blue-violet, soon fading to grayish violet, later with ocher yellow to brass yellow spots; glossy; veil whitish often becoming ochraceous brown at bulb margin, (Brandrud), 4-8cm x 1.5-3cm, with bulb that is sometimes marginate, sometimes not; "pallid yellowish, upper part violaceous", (Phillips), 5-10cm x 1.5-2.5cm, bulbous, solid; pale purplish, (Lincoff(2))

Veil:
whitish often becoming ochraceous brown at bulb margin, (Brandrud), partial veil cobwebby, leaving faint zone on stem, (Lincoff(2))

Odor:
faint, somewhat musty (yeast-like etc.), (Brandrud), slightly of meal (Phillips), earth-like or weakly farinaceous (Miller)

Taste:
slightly of meal (Phillips), weakly farinaceous (Miller)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7.5-9 x 4.5-5(5.5) microns, elliptic to somewhat almond-shaped, finely and densely verrucose, (Brandrud), spores 7.5-9(10) x 4.5-6.3 microns, oval to almond-shaped, warty, (Phillips), spores 6-10 x 4.5-5 microns, elliptic, minutely roughened, (Lincoff(2)); pleurocystidia none, marginal cells 16-20 x 5-6 microns, basidiole-like, (Breitenbach)

Spore deposit:
rusty brown (Phillips), rust (Lincoff(2))

Notes:
Smith reported in 1944 that C. glaucopus was abundant in the fall in Olympic National Park in WA and Smith also reports it for CA. Kernaghan(1) report it from AB, Lincoff(2) reports it for the Pacific Northwest, and Phillips says Cortinarius glaucopus (Schaeff. ex Fr.) Fr. sensu Moser is found in conifer woods in the Pacific Northwest (the olivaceous form). C. glaucopus is mentioned by Lincoff for CA. It is not clear which members of the Cortinarius glaucopus group occur in the Pacific Northwest. C. glaucopus is also found throughout Europe. BC collections are deposited at Pacific Forestry Centre. The University of Washington has collections from WA, OR, ID, AK, CA, CO, MT, and WY, some labeled as var. olivaceus. There are collections from BC identified as this species at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

no (Phillips)