Cortinarius     Genus

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Gills not free
Spore print tan, orange, deep ochre, yellowish olive, olive brown, rusty or cinnamon brown or deep brown
Ring usually either absent or not membranous

Growing on the ground

Cortinarius     Genus     Persoon: S. F. Gray

Diagnosis

• With a cobwebby partial veil called a cortina
  
• Stem often much wider at the base
  
• Spore print usually rusty brown or cinnamon brown

Microscropic Characters

• Spores warted or at least roughened, lacking an apical pore

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

• Not sticky anywhere
  
• Cap not hygrophanous
  
• Entire fruiting body very dark, iridescent purple, except where colored by spores
  
• Cap slightly scaly

• Not sticky anywhere
  
• Cap not hygrophanous
  
• Cap usually less than 3" across
  
• Fruiting body petite
  
• Bright, water-soluble yellow, olive, red or orange pigmentation somewhere on the fruiting body

• Not sticky anywhere
  
• Cap not hygrophanous
  
• Fruiting body husky, with duller olive, yellow, yellowish or orangish brown coloration

• Cap and stem slimy
  
• The slime is often very bitter (touch your tongue to the cap)

• Only the cap is slimy/sticky
  
• Stem often bulbous at the base; basal bulb often with a sharp rim

• Not sticky anywhere
  
• Cap not hygrophanous
  
• Fruiting body with purple to lilac coloration

• Cap hygrophanous
  
• Not sticky anywhere

Lookalikes: Hebeloma     Genus Vaguely brownish, like a Leprocybe, but the pileus is usually sticky when fresh or wet.

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