Cortinarius rotundisporus (Elegant Blue Webcap)

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The fruit body is a mushroom with a cap atop a central stem. The cap may grow to 7 centimetres in diameter but is often less. The cap is smooth, gently rounded but with a central hump (technically an umbo), blue but with the umbo yellow to brownish. When fresh the cap is viscid. The gills are pale violet to rusty brown (the latter when the mature spores are abundant). The stem may grow to over 10 centimetres in length and up to 2 wide. It is smooth and white to pale blue.

In young specimens there is a cobwebby partial veil (or cortina) that covers the gills. This breaks as the cap expands, leaving a fibrillose remnant on the stem and usually you see this a rusty brown band. Before the cortina has broken, many mature spores will have already fallen onto its upper side and it is this spore deposit that gives the colour.

Spore print: rust brown.

This is a mycorrhizal species and the mushrooms appear on soil in eucalypt forests, woodlands and in parks or gardens with planted eucalypts.

Blue is an uncommon colour in fungi.

Cortinarius rotundisporus is listed in the following regions:

Canberra & Southern Tablelands | South Coast | Greater Brisbane