A stocky webcap with a sticky, streaky ochre to olive-brown cap and a lilac-blue stem that ends in a rimmed bulb. It sometimes grows in large numbers or in fairy rings. It is common in western North America, especially the Rocky Mountains, and is now placed in the segregate genus Phlegmacium.
Inedible; not recommended. Its taste is mild, but it closely resembles several poisonous webcaps, and eating it is discouraged. Cortinarius includes deadly species such as C. orellanus and C. rubellus that contain orellanine, which causes kidney failure that appears only after a delay of days, often after the meal has been forgotten.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal, mainly with conifers but also with hardwoods; scattered to gregarious, sometimes in fairy rings, from late summer into autumn, or over winter in warm climates.
Distribution
Western North America, common in the Rocky Mountains. MushroomExpert.com treats the name in a broad sense as widely distributed in North America; Wikipedia calls it rare east of the Great Plains. Also Europe, including Britain, where it is rare, and Mexico. North American collections probably belong to several closely related species.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-12 cm, convex becoming broadly convex to nearly flat; sticky when fresh; ochre, tawny, grayish olive or rusty brown, sometimes bluish when young, streaked with darker radial fibers; margin often paler and wavy. Gills: attached, sometimes notched, close; lilac to pale purple-blue at first, becoming rusty brown. Stem: 4-10 cm long and 1-3 cm thick, with a truncated, rimmed, slightly bulbous base; lilac-blue when young, fading to yellowish below; rusty cortina remnants. Flesh: whitish to yellowish, bluish in the upper stem; odor not distinctive or faintly mealy. Spore print: rusty to red-brown. Spores: 6-10 x 4-5.5 um, ellipsoid to slightly almond-shaped, weakly warted (MushroomExpert.com).
