Summary:
Features include 1) relatively slender habit, 2) a non-hygrophanous, pale tan to yellow-brown, dry to slightly viscid cap that has a pale gray bloom when young, 3) pale gray flesh with a yellow tinge, sometimes darkening to yellow or orange in the stem base, 4) pale gray gills which may be pinkish lilac when young, 5) a pale whitish to buff or grayish yellow stem (may be lilac at top when young) covered by a thin white layer, 6) a yellow reaction of flesh to alkali, and 7) microscopic characters including a duplex cap cuticle (according to Ammirati(15) "with a distinctive hypocutis and a thin gelatinous surface layer above the epicutis").

Cap:
2-7cm across, rounded to convex, obtusely convex to flat or somewhat uplifted, "disc even to flattened or slightly depressed", "somewhat brittle and fragile", margin incurved to downcurved or straight to uplifted; "pallid buff, whitish tan, honey color to tawny ochraceous", developing light yellow-ocher to orange-yellow color when old, "becoming light orange buff brown to orange ochraceous tawny, usually darker in the center", not hygrophanous; dry to moist or slightly viscid to sublubricous, not striate, smooth, often with a +/- persistent whitish to pallid bloom or pale sheen, "margin innately streaked, sometimes white silky fibrillose at edge from veil", (Ammirati), 3.5-7.5cm across; hemispheric then broadly convex, finally may be slightly upturned; non-hygrophanous, evenly pale tan to warm yellow-brown, when young covered by thin grayish-white frost, when old leathery ocher; slightly viscous [viscid] to almost dry, somewhat waxy, minutely rugose [wrinkled], matte, "difficult to peel (50 %)", (Soop)

Flesh:
in cap 0.8-1cm thick at disc, very thin at outer margin; in stipe solid or somewhat stuffed in lower part; color sometimes pale lilac in stem top, in stem base white, otherwise "whitish to pallid buff with orange buff brown to light clay color areas", developing orangish discolorations when old, (Ammirati), pale gray with a yellow tinge, faintly marbled yellow, sometimes darkening yellow in base of stem, gray horn line above gills, (Soop)

Gills:
"adnate to adnexed with a decurrent line", "somewhat crowded to close or subdistant"; "at first slightly pinkish lilac to creamy white, pale cream color to whitish buff or pallid, developing grayish brown to brownish colors", then becoming ochraceous buff to light yellow-ocher or orange-brown when old from spores; edges even to eroded, (Ammirati), "adnate to closely emarginate", fairly crowded, 58 reaching stipe, 2 subgills between neighboring gills; pale gray, edge the same color, (Soop)

Stem:
4-11cm x 0.5-1.3cm at top, 1-1.9cm wide at base, slightly clavate [club-shaped], subbulbous or +/- equal, "sometimes tapered or twisted at base"; "white to creamy white to cream color or honey-buff, apex sometimes with a slight lilac tint", in lower part "soon discolored clay color, orange buff brown, brown or carrot orange", "moist to dry", "silky to innately fibrillose, covered with longitudinal veil fibrils at times", (Ammirati), 4-10cm x 0.6-1.4cm, cylindric with distinct, rounded bulb (2.5cm wide), sometimes clavate [club-shaped]; pale grayish yellow, darkening when old, top white, stem "covered by a thin white layer, staining yellow on pressure (by absorption)", (Soop)

Veil:
veil thin, white, "leaving slight remnants or a zone of fibrils near apex", "with small, white strands at base", (Ammirati), veil and cortina white, sparse, (Soop)

Odor:
"slightly cheese-like (Brie), yeasty or not distinctive", (Ammirati), very faint, pleasant, (Soop)

Taste:
"mild or slightly sour", (Ammirati), mild (Soop)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8.0-10(12) x (5)5.5-6.0(6.5) microns, shape variable, usually elliptic but some broadly elliptic or somewhat amygdaloid [almond-shaped], "slightly to moderately verruculose, some more coarsely verruculose on apex", "nondextrinoid to slightly dextrinoid", some collapsing in Melzer''s mounts; cap cuticle duplex, "surface (viscid) layer thin", hyphae 2-4 microns wide, cylindric, colorless to yellowish, epicutis poorly developed, hyphae mostly (3)4-8 microns wide, radially arranged, +/- interwoven, narrow cylindric to somewhat enlarged, "even to uneven in outline, colorless to mostly bright yellowish, occasionally encrusted", hypocutis well developed, hyphae interwoven to +/- radially arranged, up to 25 microns wide, enlarged to inflated or cylindric, "yellowish brown to mostly brownish, walls colorless to yellowish brown, often refractive, some encrusted, yellowish interhyphal pigment deposits present in some places"; "clamp connections present", (Ammirati), spores (7.5)8-9.5(10) x 5.5-6.5 microns, elliptic, moderately punctuate; cystidia none; "epicutis very thin (telamonioid); hypoderm with thick strings of a yellow pigment on hyphal walls, no gelatinized hyphae", (Soop)

Notes:
Cortinarius pinophilus has been found in BC and WA (Ammirati(15)). The main photograph here from BC. Harrower(1) assigned a BC collection sequence 2 to Cortinarius pinophilus. Morphological correlation is desirable. The type was described from Sweden.

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