Created: 2008-07-24 09:11:34

By: Karl Soop (karlsoop)

Summary: C. iodes

Comment: 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