Habitat and Range
Cortinarius gentilis has 1) a hygrophanous cap that is deep brownish yellow fading to pale yellow (also referred to as bright brownish yellow), often with a more or less acute umbo, the margin sometimes slightly striate, 2) distant gills that are brownish yellow and may have a dull olivaceous, dark reddish, or violaceous tinge, 3) a rather long, slender, cylindric stem with a base that is tapered or rooting, the stem surface yellow to yellow brown, darkening in the lower part, 4) a yellow veil thinly sheathing the stem and forming a distinct zone with thin girdles in the lower part, 5) an odor that is mild or of wet cement, raw potatoes, or radish, and 6) distinctly ornamented spores 7-8.5 x (5.5)6-6.5 microns, (Robertson). |Cortinarius limonius has 1) a hygrophanous cap that is red-brown, brownish yellow to reddish orange, fading to bright yellowish, 2) moderately crowded gills that are dark yellow to brownish yellow or ochraceous brown, 3) a cylindric to fusiform stem that is yellow to yellow brown, the veil pale yellow and forming indistinct zones, 4) mild odor, and 5) spores 7.5-8.5(9) microns, finely ornamented (as opposed to distinctly ornamented for Cortinarius rubellus), (Robertson). |Cortinarius callisteus has 1) a non-hygrophanous cap that is bright orange-yellow to reddish brown, often finely tomentose-scaly, especially near the center, 2) close to distant gills that are orange-yellow to yellow brown, 3) a clavate, sometimes rooting stem that is orange-yellow to reddish brown (reddish brown toward the base), and fibrillose to scaly, 4) stem interior often a reddish brown, 5) a peculiar odor of locomotive diesel or mild odor, and 6) moderately ornamented spores 8-10.5 x 6.2-8 microns, (Robertson). |Cortinarius orellanus (not documented from North America) 1) fruits in mixed or hardwood forests (rarely coniferous), 2) has a non-hygrophanous cap that is red-brown, orange-brown, or ochraceous brown, more dark brown when old, finely scaly, and thin-fleshed, 3) has distant gills that are warm ochraceous to rust-brown, 4) has an equal stem (with the base sometimes tapered) that is golden yellow to red-brown, and rather smooth, 5) has a veil that is slightly fibrillose, and pale yellow, 6) has an odor that mild or radish-like, and 7) has distinctly ornamented spores 8-10 x 6-6.5 microns, (Robertson). |C. limonius and C. callisteus both have non-umbonate or barely umbonate cap and brighter yellow or yellow-orange colors, (Breitenbach). |Cortinarius distans var. olympianus [synonymized here with Cortinarius hinnuleocervinus] has a hygrophanous cap with a margin that is faintly striatulate when moist, and distinctly narrower spores (5-6 microns), (Smith).gregarious to cespitose, under second generation young to mature Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) with Tsuga heterophylla (Western Hemlock), Thuja plicata (Western Red-cedar) and Acer circinatum (Vine Maple), also on very rotten moss-covered logs under Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata; in BC and Washington from early July to later September, (Robertson), gregarious to cespitose in duff under Abies balsamea in the collection from Nova Scotia, subcespitose in Sphagnum under Larix laricina and Picea mariana in Ontario, and reported from wet, boggy sites in Europe, (Thorn), on humus in coniferous forest, (Smith), summer, fall