Summary:
Subgenus Phlegmacium. Features of Cortinarius infractiflavus are 1) yellow-brown to almost yellow, glutinous cap, 2) buff flesh that is grayish-marbled in stem, 3) adnate, crowded gills that are olivaceous brownish, 4) equal to clavate stem that is pale gray then grayish brown with an olivaceous cast and innately fibrillose, 5) growth under conifers, and 6) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Moser(8) unless otherwise indicated.

Cap:
2.0-8.0cm across, "convex, margin at first involute"; yellow-brown to almost yellow, "margin hygrophanous", marginal zone with olivaceous grayish color; glutinous

Flesh:
pale olive buff to "tilleul buff", in stem grayish marbled

Gills:
rounded adnate, 0.4-0.8cm broad, equal to about 1/2 to 1 x breadth of cap flesh, (40)-100-120 gills reaching stem, 1-3 subgills between neighboring gills, 17-18 gills per centimeter at margin; olivaceous brownish; edges eroded, paler

Stem:
2.5-7.0cm x 1.0-1.6cm wide, the base 1.2-2.0cm wide, equal or clavate; pale gray at first, "below the cortina often with yellowish covering (veil remains?), then grayish brown with an olivaceous cast and innately fibrillose (darker and paler)"

Veil:
whitish

Odor:
"very slightly of cedar wood (?) or fungaceous"

Taste:
"only very slightly bitter, nearly mild"

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.7-8.5 x 4.8-6.1(6.6) microns, "drop-shaped to subglobose or subamygdaliform" [drop-shaped to nearly round or somewhat almond-shaped]; basidia 4-spored, 30-32 x 7.5-8 microns, clavate; cheilocystidia absent; clamp connections present, (Moser), spores 7.5-8.2-9.1 x 6.3-6.7-7.0 microns (Liimatainen)

Notes:
The type from WY was sequenced, and matched a sequence from a BC collection. Morphological correlation is desirable. Collections were examined and sequenced from Bulgaria, and Finland. (Liimatainen(2)).

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Cortinarius infractus var. flavus M.M. Moser