Summary:
Section Obtusi (used to be in Subgenus Telamonia but not closely related). Cortinarius scandens is a member of the Cortinarius obtusus group (small, slender-stemmed, thin-fleshed, brown Telamonias) which also includes C. acutus, C. impolitus, C. obtusus, C. fasciatus, and C. pulcher. Some authors consider C. obtusus and C. scandens to be synonyms, but differences noted by others are discussed in the A consensus has not developed on what C. scandens represents among modern species. SIMILAR section. It is not as common in Washington as C. obtusus or C. acutus.

Cap:
1-3cm across, conic - bell-shaped, then expanded-umbonate; hygrophanous, "watery-rusty-fulvous at first when moist", "soon honey-colored or alutaceous to paler when dry"; bald, striatulate on margin when moist, (Kauffman), 1-3.2cm across, convex, usually with blunt umbo; hygrophanous, tawny or rusty brown when moist, drying yellowish; bald, translucent-striate on margin when wet, (Stuntz), 1-3cm across, hemispheric or with blunt umbo; +/- orange-brown, red-brown, dry yellow-brown; damp margin striate, (Moser), 1-4cm across, conic then flat with an umbo; hygrophanous, watery yellow-brown when wet, pale yellowish ocher when dry; smooth, (Phillips), 1.5-3cm, conic when young, later bell-shaped to flat, always with a +/- distinct umbo, "margin incurved for a long time"; strongly hygrophanous, dark reddish brown to gray-brown when moist, drying yellow-brown; finely radially fibrillose, when moist faintly striate, margin covered with whitish veil fibrils when young, (Breitenbach)

Flesh:
thin; colored as cap, (Kauffman), yellowish (Phillips), thin; cream to brown, (Breitenbach)

Gills:
adnate, sometimes emarginate, close to subdistant, narrow, thin; pallid-brown then cinnamon, the edges colored as faces, (Kauffman), pallid brown becoming cinnamon; the edges the same color as faces, (Stuntz), rust-brown (Moser), "adnexed; pallid yellowish buff then rusty", (Phillips), broadly attached, 26-30 reaching stem, broad, 3 subgills between neighboring gills; yellow-ocher when young, later rust brown, sometimes rust-spotted, edges whitish in places; edges slightly crenate [scalloped], (Breitenbach)

Stem:
3-8cm x 0.2-0.5cm, narrowing downward, attenuate at the slender curved base, flexuous [wavy], soon rigid, stuffed then hollow; "fulvous when moist, pallid or white and shining when dry"; scarcely fibrillose at first from remains of scanty white cortina, (Kauffman), 3.2-7.9cm x 0.3-0.5cm, equal or tapering at base, rigid, hollow; yellowish-tawny when wet, pallid or white when dry; satiny-shining, (Stuntz), 6-10cm x 0.2-0.4cm, pale ocher, (Moser), 6-10cm x 0.2-0.5cm, equal; creamy colored, a little darker near base, (Phillips), 3.5-8cm x 0.3-0.5cm, cylindric, at times somewhat widened toward top, base often tapered, fragile, solid becoming hollow; "when young light ocher-brown, sometimes with a faint pink tint, translucent whitish-fibrillose over the entire length, the ground color appearing immediately when touched", the fibrils sometimes forming a fugacious [fleeting] annular zone, soon becoming bald and deep brown, (Breitenbach)

Veil:
cortina scanty white (Kauffman)

Odor:
none or slight (Kauffman), slight, similar to iodine (Phillips), pleasant, not distinctive, (Breitenbach)

Taste:
mild (Phillips), mild, not distinctive, (Breitenbach)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6-7.5(8) x 4-5 microns, short-elliptic, almost smooth, (Kauffman), spores 6-8 x 5 microns (Moser), (6.3)6.8-7.4(8.4) x (4.4)5.0-5.6 microns (Kernaghan), 6-7.5 x 4.25-5 microns, broadly ovate, rough, (Phillips), spores 6.2-8.5 x 4.5-5.5 microns, elliptic, weakly verrucose, light ocher; basidia 4-spored, 25-30 x 6.5-9 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp connection; no pleurocystidia, marginal cells only occasional, cylindric to clavate, end cells 15-30 x 3.5-10 microns, some septa; cap cuticle of periclinal hyphae 4-7 microns wide, colorless to ocher-yellow and lightly encrusted, septa with clamp connections, (Breitenbach)

Spore deposit:
rust brown (Breitenbach)

Notes:
Cortinarius scandens was found by Smith in WA in 1941 (Smith(12)) and CA in 1937 (Smith(22)). It has been reported from CO, MI, and NY, (Kauffman(3)), western AB (Kernaghan(1)), and Europe including Switzerland, North Africa, (Breitenbach). There are collections labeled Cortinarius scandens at the University of Washington from WA and OR, and at the University of British Columbia from BC.

EDIBILITY

not edible (Phillips)