Cortinarius esculentus

The cap of Cortinarius esculentus is small — from 3 to 7 centimeters across. When young it is convex to bell-shaped with an inrolled margin, opening out flat with age. The surface is smooth or finely fibrous, dry or slightly moist. The color is brown, yellowish-brown or clay-tan, darker in the center. Its modest brown color makes the mushroom inconspicuous and easy to confuse with other webcaps.

The hymenophore is gilled. The gills are attached to the stem, fairly crowded, pale at first — clay-colored or pale brown — and take on a rusty-brown, brown tint from the spores as they mature. When young they are covered by a cobwebby veil (cortina), whose remnants settle on the stem. The spore print is rusty brown. Rusty gills and a cortina are the hallmarks of the webcaps.

The stem is cylindrical, 4 to 8 centimeters tall, whitish or pale brown, often with a fibrous band in the upper part — a trace of the cortina, on which rusty spore dust settles. There is no true ring. There is no volva. The surface is lengthwise fibrous.

The flesh is whitish or pale brown and barely changes color when cut. The taste is mild, with no noticeable bitterness. Because this mushroom belongs to the treacherous webcap genus, the flesh is not a reliable guide: identifying it by taste or appearance alone is dangerous, so at the slightest doubt it is not eaten.

The smell is faint, mushroomy, with no sharp notes. The aroma is not a reliable feature for a safe identification. The mushroom is recognized by its brown cap, rusty gills with a cortina and banded stem, yet even these features demand a great deal of experience because of the risk of confusing it with deadly relatives.