Figure 1. Cortinarius rubellus,photographed by ChristieRobertson. ... - PDF document

Figure 1. Cortinarius rubellus,photographed by ChristieRobertson. FUNGIVolume 2:2Special Issue—Ethnomycology2009narius Flora Photographica (Brandrud et al., 1992) and decided thatthe mushrooms we had looked a lot like the pictures of Cortinariusrubellus. However, at the foray I was the Ramaria person, so JoshuaBirkebak, a student working with Joe Ammirati, did the micros-copy and took the material back to Joe, who later reported thatwe had been looking at Cortinarius californicus, a species that Ithought I knew well. I had just wanted too badly to have finallyseen a specimen of the very rare Cortinarius rubellus.Friday night of the foray there was a book auction to raisemoney for the NAMA endowment; included in the auction werethe first two volumes of Cortinarius Flora Photographica. I made anearly bid, but soon the bidding went far beyond my means and themeans of my good friend Drew Parker, who also dearly wantedthe book. Fran Sundberg was the successful bidder. Much to myamazement and pleasure, later that evening she presented me withthe two volumes that she had just purchased. I felt guilty. I wasnot working on Cortinarius and did not intend to start.Less than two months later I was just finishing up with thegrape harvest at my home, Oak Hill, in the Columbia River Gorge.The Chardonnay, the Riesling, and the Muscat wines were alreadyracked, and as I was about to press the Cabernet Franc, CabernetSauvignon, Nebbiolo, and Pinot Noir, I received an e-mail fromJoe Ammirati asking about Cortinarius associated with oaks. My interest in mushrooms associated withoaks has been growing steadily since my home was relocated tothe middle of a grove of Oregon White Oak, Quercus garryana. had never seen a single associated with oaks in Wash-ington or Oregon. Indeed the only Cortinarius that I had collectedin this habitat was a species (Fig. 3) that I had been unable to namegrowing in a mixed oak and Ponderosa pine habitat. It was clearlyTelamonia, a group that is difficult even for Cortinarius. Neverthe-less, I walked over to a particularly pure stand of oaks just west ofthe house where no intermixed Douglas fir or Grand fir or Pon-derosa Pine was present. Walking along a very old logging road, Idid not see the first two collections of Cortinarius buried underthe leaves until I had trampled them. In an hour I had come upCortinarius species. As Joe had instructed, Ichecked the reaction for the cap cuticle, upper stipe, stipe base,and context with 10% KOH. For good measure I also checkedfor UV fluorescence and then sent images off to Joe. Within hours,Joe responded that all four collections were of species he hadnever seen before! Three were in the subgenus Phlegmacium. ure 4 is the only that I did not trample that day.The following week I went to the home of some new friends,Tom Cope and Jan Muir (John Muir’s granddaughter), who livealong the White Salmon River. I was to take them on their first-ever mushroom hunt. In the morning we went downriver into amixed fir forest and found wonderful diversity including lovelyCantharellus cascadensis, a giant Yellow Chanterelle;and even though it was mid-November, long past normal KingBolete season in our area, there was one prime ied deep in the duff. We also found one single Dermocybe. Therewere no other Corts. At lunch, looking upriver from their home,I noted beautiful groves of Oregon White Oak, and so we headedthere after eating. I was eager to find more collections ofPhlegmacium. We collected a beautiful basket of the Fried Chicken Mushroom, Lyophyllum decastes, but not a singleCortinarius. Arriving home, my wife, still not trusting my taxonomyafter 40 years, refused to try either the Lyophyllum decastes.Not wanting the mushrooms to go to waste, the next day Iheaded out to my favorite commercial winery. Syncline Winery isowned by James and Poppy Mantone, and they both love mush-rooms. I had nestled the lavender Blewits and the tan Fried ChickenMushrooms in a beautiful African basket that Paul Stamets andDusty Yao had given me the previous Christmas. The mushroomswere a real attraction to visitors in the tasting room at Syncline.Then James came over to describe this spectacular mushroom he Figure 3. Cortinarius in subgenus Telamonia.Figure 4. Cortinarius