Summary:
Section Obtusi (used to be in Subgenus Telamonia but not closely related). The Cortinarius obtusus group, as described below by Arora, is a group of small, slender-stemmed, thin-fleshed, brown Telamonias [most now known not to be closely related to Telamonias]. It is not clear which species occur in the Pacific Northwest, but the following names have been used in the past: C. acutus (prominent sharp conic umbo, translucent-striate cap, and slender, equal, pallid, satiny stem), C. impolitus = C. incisus Fr. (sharp or blunt umbo, equal stem, the only one that has conspicuous white veil remnants on stem and the only one in which the cap surface breaks into scales), C. obtusus (cap bell-shaped at first, with blunt umbo when expanded, cap striate almost to center when moist, spindle-shaped stem, and white gill edges), C. scandens (bluntly umbonate, cap translucent-striate only on the margin when wet, stem not spindle-shaped (but may taper at the base), no cheilocystidia (therefore no white gill edges), and smaller spores than C. obtusus), C. fasciatus (clustered growth, sharp conic umbo, and red-brown cap, gills and stem), and C. pulcher (sharp conic umbo, red-brown cap, gills and stem, and growth not clustered), (mostly from Stuntz(5)).

Gills:
adnate to adnexed, close; light to dull brown becoming cinnamon brown, (Arora), [may become white-edged tawny]

Stem:
4-8cm x 0.2-0.6cm, equal or often wider in the middle, hollow when old, fragile; colored like cap or often yellower or paler, then whitish or pallid as it loses moisture; dry

Veil:
scanty, pallid or whitish universal veil and cortina, disappearing or leaving a few fibrils on stem

Odor:
usually radish-like or iodine-like but often faint

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10 x 4-5.5 microns (C. obtusus), elliptic, rough

Spore deposit:
brown to rusty-brown

Notes:
Cortinarius obtusus was reported by Trudell(1) from WA. Kauffman collected it in OR and Smith in CA. There are collections at the University of Washington labeled C. obtusus from WA, OR, AK, CO, WY, and Sweden, C. acutus from WA, OR, CA, and Austria, C. scandens from WA and OR, and C. impolitus from WA. There are collections labeled C. obtusus, C. acutus, C. scandens, and C. fasciatus from BC at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

unknown, do not experiment, (Arora)