Cortinarius parkeri
no common name
Cortinariaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi

Photograph

© Michael Beug     (Photo ID #53008)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Cortinarius parkeri
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Species Information

Summary:
The most notable feature is the yellowish, fibrillose-membranous universal veil that typically forms volva-like remnants at the rounded to bulbous stem base. Other features include non-viscid cap that is yellow-brown to orange-brown or sometimes olive-tinged, sometimes partly or completed covered with the yellowish veil; light yellow-olive to brownish yellow young gills; whitish to pallid or yellowish young stem; flesh in cap and especially stem that develops reddish to reddish brown colors when damaged or old; strongly radish-like odor; growth under conifers in the spring often at high elevations, often partly buried; and microscopic characters including verrucose spores that typically reveal connecting lines and ridges at 1000X. This description is derived from Ammirati(14).
Cap:
2.1-7cm across, convex to flat or uplifted, shallowly depressed, margin downcurved; brown ("Argus Brown" in Ridgway(1)), orange-brown, brownish orange, yellow-brown, sometimes with slight olive yellow tone or sheen; "moist to dry, somewhat hygrophanous and watery streaked at times", "sometimes partially or completely coated" with pale dull yellow fibrillose-membranous to matted fibrillose veil, "veil may be thin and poorly developed in places", "often developing brownish to reddish streaks and shades" or becoming brownish orange in places when old, margin with innate to appressed fibrillose streaks, not striate
Flesh:
up to 0.6cm thick at disc, solid, firm; watery brown with reddish tones in places, "pale yellowish brown, pale brownish, fading to pallid, pale brownish white or whitish, sometimes mottled watery brown"; in stem "pale yellowish brown, whitish to watery brown", "with some reddish staining, in base sometimes becoming pinkish cinnamon", when old "developing reddish cinnamon brown to pinkish cinnamon brown or orange brown colors where broken or damaged"
Gills:
"adnexed with a decurrent line to sinuate, close to more or less crowded"; light yellow-olive, brownish yellow-buff becoming orange-brown, dull rusty brown to medium rusty brown, "with some dull yellow to yellow-brown or orange shades or streaks in places"
Stem:
3.3-4.9cm x 0.7-1.3cm at top, base 0.9-2cm wide, equal, narrowing downward, stuffed to hollow, base rounded to bulbous, inserted in soil and litter; stem "whitish to pallid, yellowish or slightly yellowish with light watery brown streaks", rusty orange when old; shiny
Veil:
universal veil "appressed to flaring, fibrillose-membranous to membranous, often appearing volva-like", yellow to yellowish becoming paler yellow and brownish when old
Odor:
typically strongly radish-like or rarely earthy garlicky
Taste:
mildly radish-like
Microscopic spores:
spores (6.5)7-9(9.5) x 5-6(6.5) microns, short elliptic to broadly elliptic or nearly round, variable in shape and size especially from the surface of the gills, "ornamentation moderate to coarse or very coarse, verrucose to verrucose with distinct connecting ridges", ("While they generally appear distinctly verrucose, and often coarsely so, careful examination at 1000X typically shows that the ornamentation may develop connecting lines and ridges"), not dextrinoid; basidia 4-spored, 24-45 x 7-9 microns, "clavate to broadly clavate", "colorless or containing dull yellowish to brownish yellow pigment"; gill edges "fertile, sometimes with scattered or clustered cylindrical to narrow ventricose or clavate cells", 20-35 x 7-10 microns; clamp connections present
Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, and ID, (Ammirati).
EDIBILITY

Habitat and Range

Habitat
single, gregarious or cespitose, developing in soil and litter, often partly buried, consistently associated with conifers but found in mixed forests as well, fruiting from March to April at lower elevations (120-270 m. a. s. l.) and from early May to mid-July at higher elevations (up to 1315 m. a. s. l.), (Ammirati), spring, summer