Summary:
Subgenus Telamonia Section Telamonia (C. venustus used to be considered as in Subgenus Sericeocybe). The group here includes the overlapping names Cortinarius venustus, Cortinarius calopus, Cortinarius fragrans, and Cortinarius ionema. Features include a dry cap that is pale grayish lilac or pale ochraceous brown (often with lilac patches at margin); dull pale lilac or pale pinkish cinnamon gills; a dry, pallid to brownish stem that is bright lavender toward the top; and an odor of overripe pears. More DNA work is required to resolve this group. Cortinarius venustus and Cortinarius fragrans (see separate description) are two of its members, but the relationship between the two requires further work. The online Index Fungorum, accessed February 14, 2019, gave Cortinarius calopus P. Karst as a synonym of Cortinarius venustus P. Karst., but did not synonymize Cortinarius fragrans or Cortinarius ionema with either. Huhtinen(1) treats Cortinarius fragrans A.H. Sm. as a synonym of Cortinarius calopus P. Karst., following M.M. Moser (1987). Cortinarius ionema is now known to be a synonym of Cortinarius fragrans A.H. Sm. (D. Miller, pers. comm., from J. Ammirati). Harrower(1), which is a molecular study featuring British Columbia Cortinarii, indicates a clade that includes C. venustus, C. aff. torvus, and possibly other species. |The 2020 DNA sequencing study of Liimatainen(11) gives the current name for part of the holotype of Cortinarius calopus P. Karst. as Cortinarius venustus P. Karst and part as the phylogenetically close C. calopus P. Karst. It also gives the current name of the holotypes of C. fragrans and C. ionema as Cortinarius calopus P. Karst. Their phylogenetic tree appears to show one British Columbia sequence matching the holotype designated as C. venustus and another British Columbia sequence matching the holotype of C. calopus.

Cap:
(2)3-6(9)cm across, obtusely conic with incurved margin, becoming bell-shaped to almost flat with low umbo; 'pallid when young but tinged lilac, ("pale vinaceous-fawn"), slowly becoming darker, some tinged "light vinaceous cinnamon" toward the margin and more or less wood brown over the disc, sometimes with more of a vinaceous tinge', (Smith), 3.2-7.6cm across, "pallid when very young, soon pale grayish lilac, old specimens becoming dull brown with a lilac tinge"; "densely appressed-fibrillose, with copious ragged remnants of the cortina at the margin", (Stuntz), up to 5.5cm across, convex with an indistinct broad umbo; not hygrophanous, close to hazel brown, covered at first with prominent violet veil, which at times persists at the margin as narrow bands or appendiculate remnants; dry, fibrous, somewhat bald, (Huhtinen), 3-7cm across, hemispheric then low convex to almost flat, ochraceous brown, (paler when young), "usually with lilac veil patches at margin"; slightly fibrillose, not hygrophanous, (Knudsen)

Flesh:
thin, tapered abruptly away from disc; pallid but lilac-tinged at first, fading to lilac-buff or nearly white, (Smith), "lilac-tinged at first, fading to pallid", flesh of the stem base pallid or with a tinge of lavender, (Stuntz), white; in stem white, sporadically violaceous, pale brownish when dried, (Huhtinen), "pale ochraceous brownish", violaceous in stem top, (Knudsen)

Gills:
adnate, developing a short decurrent tooth, seceding in some, subdistant (about 33 reach stem), broad (about 0.5cm), equal, 2 tiers of subgills; dull pale lilac or pale pinkish cinnamon, becoming dull cinnamon, (Smith), when young, pale dull lilac or pale pinkish buff, (Stuntz), broadly attached, not especially broad; at first yellowish brown, lacking violaceous tinges, later brown, edge whitish; edge smooth, (Huhtinen), crowded to medium-spaced; pale ocher brown when young, "later darker brown", (Knudsen)

Stem:
5-10cm x (0.4)0.6-0.8(1.1)cm, equal or merely subbulbous at base, stuffed; bright lavender at least toward the top, usually duller below toward the pallid base which finally becomes slightly brownish, stem usually more or less zoned; scurfy near top, ragged-fibrillose in lower part from veil remnants, (Smith), 5-10cm x 0.6-1.3cm, sometimes with club-shaped base, more often not; bright lavender toward top, duller below, the base pallid; stem ragged-fibrillose, especially in upper part, (Stuntz), 5-6cm x 1-1.5cm, equal or slightly club-shaped in lower part; "at first frequently strikingly violet, the color clear in dried material also, later brownish"; often with abundant white tomentum, (Huhtinen), 6.0-13.0 x 0.5-1.2cm, (distinctly longer than cap width), cylindric or slightly clavate, rather firm; "lilac when young, especially at top, becoming brownish from the base", (Knudsen)

Veil:
lilac fading to pallid, copious, (Smith), abundant veil often forming one appressed ring on stem, (Huhtinen), "universal veil lilac on cap and upper part of stem, elsewhere whitish, abundant, forming rings and girdles on the stem", (Knudsen)

Odor:
very distinctive, fruity (as in Cortinarius pyriodorus), (Smith), strong of over-ripe pears (Stuntz), strong and sweetish (Huhtinen), persistently fruity, (Knudsen)

Taste:
mild (Smith)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10 x 4-5.5 microns, elliptic, roughened, dark dull rusty brown in KOH, [presumably without apical pore]; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not found, (Smith), spores 7.2-9.0 x 5.2-6.0 microns, (Huhtinen''s measurement of European material 8.0-9.5(10.4) x 5.5-6.0(6.4) microns), short elliptic, minutely rough, apiculus not prominent; basidia 4-spored, 32-40 x 7.2-8.5 microns, clavate, colorless or often with brown, homogeneous contents in lactic acid; clamp connections mentioned for cap cuticle and trama, stem cuticle and trama, and veil hyphae, (Huhtinen), spores 8-10.7 x 4.7-6 microns, elliptic but only punctate, appearing nearly smooth under the light microscope, (Moser(3) under C. ionema, for type of C. fragrans), spores (9)9.5-10.5 x 5.5-6.5 microns, elliptic, finely verrucose, moderately dextrinoid; without true cheilocystidia, (Knudsen)

Spore deposit:
[presumably close to cinnamon]

Notes:
Smith''s description is for WA, Huhtinen(1) description is for QC, and reports are mentioned from Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Harrower(1) assigned a BC collection sequence 170 to Cortinarius venustus. Morphological correlation is desirable.

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