Created: 2008-07-24 09:11:34
By: Karl Soop (karlsoop)
Summary: C. iodes

Hi Cort-fans,
There are many descriptions of C. papulosus Fr. (see Flora Photographica or my book on Cortinarius) but this is clearly not the one (it is among others endemic to Picea.

I agree with Irène that it is in the Delibuti group (which is nowadays not in Myxacium due to DNA analyses). There are many tropical and southern Cortinarii with (almost) smooth spores. In the Central American region there is Cortinaius iodes Berk, & Curt, which fits rathe well, in Delibuti. I haven’t seen it live myself, but according to Phillips;
Phillips R, 1991: Mushrooms of North America — Little Brown & Co., Boston
the spores are rather smooth and size 7-10 × 5-7. I recommend you to look in that book.
The colours are a little too red on the cap, but that could be an effect of lighting.
In New Zealand there is a species with a fiery red veil that looks something like this, C. periclymenus Soop, with almost smooth spores, but the host tree is Nothofagus and very unlikely to grow in the US.
Hope this helps,
Karl

Created: 2008-07-24 01:36:37
By: Dimitar Bojantchev (dimitar)
Summary: Clearly a Myxacium, one of those little ones...

With this additional photo it is much clearer what we’re dealing
with. It’s one of the small Myxacium species in section Delibuti. In
that case I’d suggest better microscopic photos, it is crucial to be
able to ascertain the texture of the spore wall. Beyond that I’m out of
ideas — salor shares some of the colors, but has much more verrucose
spores. We need some spore measurements and aspect ratio in order to
start talking sense here.

Created: 2008-07-19 08:39:19
By: Ron Pastorino (Ronpast)
Summary: Both cap and stem seemed viscid

I’ve added another photo that was under exposed but I think shows the viscidness a little more clearly. My original notes also mentioned that the stem was viscid. The photo also shows some lilac tints on the stems which seemed to fade with time.
The spore photo is crude and the spore print was two years old, much of which was in contact with Iodine solution.

Created: 2008-07-19 01:11:19
By: Irene Andersson (irenea)
Summary: Cortinarius, yes

I beleive in Cortinarius too – a Myxacium, sect. Delibuti, if both cap and stem are viscid as described (hard to tell from the photo). The picture of the spores isn’t sharp enough to see any ornamentation, but the rounded shape fits well in that section of corts.

Created: 2008-07-18 08:56:47
By: Douglas Smith (douglas)
Summary: Inocybe with a viscid cap?

I don’t think there is an Inocybe with a viscid cap. The popular suggestion after that seems to be Hebeloma, but those spores look pretty funny, even for that. Kinda thin walled and collapsing, hard to say what the dominate shape really is.

Created: 2008-07-18 08:28:14
By: Ron Pastorino (Ronpast)
Summary: Not a Cortinarius

Thanks Irene. Dimitar also rejected my guess and suggested Inocybe geophylia var. lilacina. Although the spore print was rather sparse, I thought the color was more rusty brown than brown but that was not conclusive. However, the caps, if not the stems, seemed very viscid. This doesn’t exactly conform to the standard Inocybe lilacina descriptions.

Created: 2008-07-18 07:56:55
By: Irene Andersson (irenea)
Summary: Sorry

I can’t agree. C. papulosus has a cap with very small reddish brown freckles on the middle of the cap, and vague brown girdles on the stem – not blue and slimy.

Created: 2008-07-18 05:25:18
By: debbie viess (amanitarita)
Summary: nice cort!

Uh oh, we’re all catching Dimi’s disease…