Summary:
Subgenus Telamonia Section Pholidei, used to be considered to be in subgenus Sericeocybe. The tiny scales on the cap and stem are unusual in Cortinarius. Features include 1) a dry, brownish yellow cap with dark brown scales, 2) gills that are pale yellowish brown to brownish gray or bluish, 3) a dry, whitish to buff stem that may be bluish at the top when young, covered below the ring zone with small dark brown scales, and 4) growth especially with birch. Cortinarius pholideus is rare in the Pacific Northwest according to Arora(1) and Phillips(1).

Cap:
2-8cm across, conic - bell-shaped, "then (acutely) umbonate, sometimes with concentric depressions"; "covered with dark brown to blackish brown scales on a paler brownish yellow surface"; dull, when old often fibrillose at margin, (Brandrud), 4-10cm across, hemispheric at first, eventually flattish with a broad umbo; ochraceous buff, slightly darker in center; dry, covered with small sepia fibrillose scales, (Phillips)

Flesh:
yellowish white, in stem top sometimes violaceous, yellowish brown in base of stem, (Brandrud), purplish near the top when young, otherwise buff (Phillips)

Gills:
moderately crowded to crowded; pale yellowish brown to brownish gray or bluish; edges often pale and fimbriate-uneven, (Brandrud), "adnate; with a touch of violet at first, then clay-buff, eventually pale rusty brown", (Phillips)

Stem:
6-12(16)cm x 0.5-2cm, equal or slightly club-shaped, firm; yellowish white to brownish white, yellowish brown towards base, top frequently bluish when young; top somewhat shiny, fibrillose, (Brandrud), 5-12cm x 0.8-1.5cm, flushed violaceous at first, especially near the top, dull buff, covered below the ring zone with small brown scales, often breaking up into snake-like patterns (Phillips)

Veil:
dark brown to blackish brown, rendering stem distinctly squarrose-girdled, (Brandrud)

Odor:
faint, sometimes distinct reminiscent of nutmeg, (Brandrud), faint, pleasant, (Phillips), not distinctive (Bessette)

Taste:
slight (Phillips), not distinctive (Bessette)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7-8 x 5-6 microns, broadly elliptic to nearly round, distinctly verrucose; gill edge "more or less fertile, with cylindric to clavate sterile cells", (Brandrud); spores 6.5-8.5 x 5-6 microns, broadly elliptic, rough, (Phillips), spores 6.3-8.6 x 5-6.9 microns, nearly round to broadly elliptic, moderately verrucose; basidia (2)4-spored, 22-31 x 7-9 microns, cylindric, clavate to ventricose, with basal clamp connection; no pleurocystidia, marginal cells not abundant, 15-28 x 3.5-5 microns, cylindric to clavate; cap cuticle of periclinal hyphae, 4-8 microns wide, light yellow and encrusted, hyphal ends in the scales 11-18 microns wide, clamp connections present, (Breitenbach), spores 6-8 x 5-5.5 microns, oval to broadly elliptic, roughened, (Bessette)

Spore deposit:
rusty brown (Phillips, Bessette), reddish brown (Breitenbach)

Notes:
There are several collections of Cortinarius pholideus from BC is deposited at the University of British Columbia. The neotype is from Sweden. BC sequence FJ157122 (#150 in Harrower(1)) matches the neotype (D. Miller, pers. comm.). Morphological correlation is desirable.

EDIBILITY

no (Phillips)