A slender, dry, yellowish- to cinnamon-brown webcap of conifer and birch woods whose gills are blood red, a striking contrast with the cap. It belongs to the brightly pigmented subgenus Dermocybe, and it is used to dye yarn.
Suspected poisonous; do not eat. First Nature and Wikipedia say it cannot be recommended for the table because it is suspected of being toxic, and Wikipedia notes it may contain compounds similar to those of C. orellanus and its relatives. It must be kept apart from the deadly orellanine-containing webcaps (C. orellanus and C. rubellus), which are also orange-brown and dry-capped. Full safety details in notes.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal with conifers, especially pines and young spruce, and with birch; alone or scattered, often in moss on acid soils; summer to autumn.
Distribution
Widely distributed in North America and common in parts of it; occasional in Britain and found across Europe and Scandinavia.
Characteristics
Cap: 1.5-7 cm, convex becoming flat or broadly bell-shaped, sometimes with a sharp umbo; dry and silky; yellowish brown to cinnamon brown, often darker at the center; KOH turns the surface purple to purplish black. Gills: attached, close; blood red, becoming cinnamon to rusty; covered at first by a yellowish cortina. Stem: 2.5-10 cm long and up to 1.5 cm thick, more or less equal, dry and silky; pale yellowish, often darker or reddish toward the base, often with a rusty ring zone. Flesh: whitish to pale yellowish; odor mild or of radish. Spore print: rusty brown. Spores: 6-9 x 4-5 um, ellipsoid, slightly roughened (MushroomExpert.com).
