Cortinarius praestans

Remarkable Web Cap


Description
Cap hemispherical to spreading, Ø 8-15 cm, shiny silky, sticky to slimy when damp, violet to brown-violet and covered with a blue-white veil, than violet to purple-brown with whitish flocks, the rim staying long enrolled and juvenile with whitish veil remnants.
Gills pale violet to light- or rusty brown.
Stem 10-15 x 2-4 cm, in juvenile stage covered with blue white woolly veil, which falls into several whitish to light ochre-coloured girdles or zones with a thickened base. Flesh whitish, in the stem bluish. Smell weak.
Spore-print colour cinnamon brown.

Occurrence
Often clustered or forming fairy circles near deciduous trees (Beech) in forests on calcareous soils.
Forming ectomycorrhiza.

Status
Vulnerable (Red Data List, ed. 1)

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