Summary: Subgenus Myxacium. Section Myxacium. Features include 1) a glutinous cap that is vivid orange to golden yellow with a darker center, sometimes with red-brown spots, 2) pale grayish or ochraceous gills, 3) a white or pale violet stem with a surface that cracks into irregular girdles when old, 4) growth with birch, and 5) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Knudsen(1).
Cap: 3.5-10cm across, hemispheric to convex, "later low convex, typically with a broad umbo"; "slightly hygrophanous in outer part", "vividly orange to golden yellow with darker centre", "the bright part of the cap sometimes with darker, red-brown spots"; strongly glutinous
Gills: pale grayish or ochraceous
Stem: 6-12.5(18)cm x 0.7-2.5cm, "white or pale violet"; when old "cracking in irregular girdles"
Microscopic spores: spores 11-13(13.5) x 6.5-8.5 microns, amygdaloid [almond-shaped], less often elliptic-citriform [elliptic-lemon-shaped], coarsely verrucose
Notes: Harrower(1) assigned a BC collection sequence 55 to Cortinarius septentrionalis. Morphological correlation is desirable. It is also found in Europe (Knudsen(1)).
EDIBILITY
Habitat and Range
Habitat
with Betula (birch) including Betula nana, late summer to fall, (Knudsen(1) for northern Europe)