Summary: Features include an olivaceous brown umbonate cap, olivaceous young gills, an olive-green to olive-ocher stem with gray-brown to brownish yellow veil remnants, growth under hardwoods or more seldom spruce, and almond-shaped spores. Note that colors are described somewhat differently among the descriptions used here, especially of the veil.
Cap: 1.2-4.1cm across, "umbonate to almost convex" (also described as "usually acute and smooth"); olivaceous when young, (Knudsen), up to 4cm across, warm brown, margin paler, olive-yellow; fibrillose-fleecy +/- zoned, (Courtecuisse), 2.5-7cm across, hemispheric then convex, flattening with broad umbo; [color not given in description but appears light brownish gray with olive tinge in painting]; dry, finely fibrous, margin sharp, (Buczacki)
Flesh: colored as surface (Courtecuisse), olive-brown, (Buczacki)
Gills: olivaceous when young, (Knudsen), olive-yellow (Courtecuisse), adnate-emarginate, fairly crowded; olive-green then olive-brown; edge +/- toothed, (Buczacki)
Stem: 2.5-5.5cm x 0.3-1cm, olivaceous green with gray-brown veil remnants, (Knudsen), up to 5cm long and 0.6cm wide, olive-ocher to brownish, with brownish yellow fibrillose veil, (Courtecuisse), 3-6cm long, +/- equal or swollen toward base; "dry, fibrous lined", (Buczacki)
Veil: gray-brown (Knudsen), brownish yellow fibrillose (Courtecuisse), partial veil gray-brown and sometimes forming ring zones, (Buczacki)
Microscopic spores: spores 6.5-8(9) x (3.5)4-5(5.5) microns, usually amygdaloid [almond-shaped], (Knudsen), spores 6.5-8 x 4-5 microns, elliptic, warty, (Buczacki)
Spore deposit: red-brown (Buczacki)
Notes: DNA sequencing indicates its presence in BC (Harrower(1)). It is also found in Europe (Knudsen(1)).
EDIBILITY
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Cortinarius olivaceopictus and Cortinarius olivaceoluteus are closely related (Niskanen(7)).
Habitat
in rich hardwood forests, usually on calcareous soil - with Fagus (beech), Quercus (oak), Corylus (hazel), Carpinus (hornbeam), possibly Tilia (lime), more seldom in rich Picea forests (spruce); late summer to fall, (Knudsen(1) for northern Europe), especially under Carpinus, often on calcareous soils, (Courtecuisse for Europe), in small groups, trooping or +/- tufted, on soil in hardwood woodland on acidic sites, usually with Fagus or Quercus but also with Salix (willow), fall, (Buczacki for Britain/Ireland)