Summary:
Subgenus Telamonia Section Castanei. Features include 1) a hygrophanous dark brown cap that dries and matures reddish brown to cinnamon brown, the disc remaining darker at first, 2) the purplish black to purplish brown bruising reaction of cap and flesh when young, 3) sinuate gills that are milky coffee brown with lighter edges, 4) a stem that is white from the universal veil, light brown beneath, and has a longitudinal cavity inside, 5) a somewhat spicy odor with a hint of fruit, 6) cespitose to scattered fruiting under conifers in late spring and early summer, and 7) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Bojantchev(6).

Cap:
2-9cm across, hemispheric to convex becoming flat-convex, "often with a broad rounded umbo", margin involute then straight; "hygrophanous in radial streaks", blackish brown when young and/or moist, lighter reddish brown to chestnut brown to cinnamon brown when mature or when dry, the disc and umbo remaining darker but fading when old; cap bruising purplish black

Flesh:
beige with conspicuous purple-brown bruising in young material, often completely absent with age; stem "with longitudinal cavity"

Gills:
sinuate, 0.5-1.2cm broad, "moderately crowded to subdistant", subgills "abundant in series of 3-5"; "latte brown at first, turning rusty brown as the spores mature"; "edges slightly uneven, conspicuously lighter in color"

Stem:
4-13cm x 0.6-1.5cm, cylindric, "straight or curved due to caespitose habit"; "light brown beneath the universal veil", sometimes with grayish blue tinges near the top

Veil:
cortina white; universal veil white, covering stem over entire length, "often leaving an annular zone, fibrous at first, sometimes glossy at age"

Odor:
"distinctly spicy with a hint of fruit", especially in young fruitbodies

Microscopic spores:
spores (8.5)9.5-11.2(12.5) x (5)5.7-6.5(7.0) microns, amygdaliform [almond-shaped] to narrowly elliptic, slightly ovate, "strongly verrucose, more so towards the apex, non- dextrinoid"; basidia 4-spored (frequently 2-spored), 34-40 x 8-10 microns, cylindro-clavate, with clamp connection; cystidia not seen, gill edge sparsely fertile; clamp connections "common on all septa"

Spore deposit:
rusty brown

Notes:
The type is from CA. Cortinarius tuolumnensis "fruits abundantly in late spring and early summer in the mountains of California and in the broader Pacific Northwest". There are two spring fruiting collections represented in GenBank from Vancouver Island BC.

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