Peck CH. 1905. Report of the State Botanist 1904. Bulletin of the New York State Museum 94: 22.

Cortinarius heliotropicus n. sp.

PLATE P, FIG. 1-7

Pileus thin, broadly campanulate, convex or nearly plane, fibrillose, viscid, heliotrope purple, generally spotted or variegated by yellowish white spots, flesh whitish, taste mild or slightly and tardily acrid, odor slight, resembling that of radishes; lamellae narrow, thin, close, rounded behind, adnexed, concolorous with the pileus when young, cinnamon when mature; stem firm, solid, or spongy within, usually slightly thickened at the base, silky fibrillose, viscid, whitish, spotted with purple or colored like the pileus, white within, spores elliptic, .0004-. 0005 of an inch long, .0002-. 00024 broad.

Pileus 1-2.5 inches broad; stem 1.5-3 hiches long, 2-4 lines thick.

Woods. Smithtown. August.

This is one of the most beautiful species of Cortinarius. It belongs to the section Myxacium. In some specimens the spots on the pileus are large or confluent, in others they are almost or entirely absent, but usually they are small and distinct. The purple color of the lamellae is persistent for some time. In large specimens the margin is sometimes adorned by fibrillose scales of the veil.