warning: if you are not interested in identification of mushrooms then reading this post may be a bit boring. perhaps you can just enjoy the photos all of which i have taken. the source references posted have provided information, not photos.
"Cortinarius is the largest genus of mushrooms in the world." with 2-3000 species and here in norway we have over 400. they are generally very common so we find them in pretty much every forest where we go picking. but they are often very difficult to identify so for years i have just passed them by as yet another webcap.
when mature, they all have rusty brown gills and spores. except for the edible Cortinarius caperatus they are considered inedible to fatally poisonous. so i don't need to know much about them, other than to avoid picking them. but this year i have had more time and a good phone camera to photograph with so instead of overlooking them i decided to dive into trying to find out more about these fungi
if they are toxic it is mostly due to the presence of orellanin(e) and there have been more than a few cases of people dying after eating them. interestingly orellanin is florescent and it is not the only florescent compound found in these mushrooms.
here i have chosen 6 and i hope i have got the identification right but don't hold me to it as exact identification can be extremely difficult even for experts.
after taking a fairly close up photo i use a norwegian phone app called artsorakel. i send in the photo and get an immediate response including percentage rated identification suggestions and other info. i am sure there are other apps out there with similar features, just look in google play for mushroom identification apps.
sometimes a good single photo is sufficient but of course there is no guarantee and further study in required. it is essential to note where the mushroom grows. cortinarius are always "terrestrial and mycorrhizal, so you will only find them in association with trees."
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/cortinarius.html
that means they always grow in the ground with a symbiotic relation to trees (that relationship may be mutualistic or parasitic). so for identification it is essential to note what kind of tree(s) it is associated with. of course other aspects such as size, shape, season, smell etc are all useful
Cortinarius cyanites blushing webcap or perhaps
Cortinarius boreicyanites northern blue webcap
anyway the cyan in the latin name indicates it should have a blue to bluish green color while the boreicyanites should be more bluish gray. usually english common names of Cortinarius end in ___ webcap or cortinar.
Cortinarius raphanoides radishy webcap
norwegian: reddikslørsopp
the easiest way to tell if a mushroom is in this genus is the cortina, which according to dictionary,com, is "a weblike, often evanescent veil covering the gills or hanging from the cap edge of certain mushrooms, particularly those of genus Cortinarius," i would add that the cortina is always present in young mushrooms but almost always disappears after the cap opens and the mushroom ages.
Cortinarius hemitrichus frosty webcap
i am quite confident about the identification of this young one because of the white fibrils. there was certainly no frost when i took this photo.
Cortinarius alboviolaceus pearly webcap
albo means white or pale and viola is violet color but there is a lot of variation in the color of photos on the different websites
Source: https://ultimate-mushroom.com/poisonous/342-cortinarius-alboviolaceus.htm
Cortinarius armillatus ? red-banded webcap
i now know that if i had observed one or more red bands on the stem i could be confident of the identification. next time i will look
source: https://www.mushroomexpert.com/cortinarius_armillatus.html
Cortinarius saturninus trooping webcap
norwegian: brunfiolett slørsopp
this one is said to be rare but this autumn was an exceptional year for mushrooms in general.
i wasn't sure what exactly what saturninus referred to, apart from the obvious but a quick search revealed that it is a boy's name and often is used to indicate sowing or to sow. so there,
sources
https://ultimate-mushroom.com
mushroomexpert.com
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/cortinarius
https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/cortinarius