Phlegmacium workgroup meeting, Wichmannsburg, 2013

Photo: © Geert Schmidt-Stohn

Group photo from our very nice, productive, well-arranged, and - not least - well-catered meeting in our Phlegmacium workgroup, hosted by Geert Schmidt-Stohn (right) i Wichmannsburg, Bienenbüttel, Germany, 7-10 march.

Many interesting Phlegmacium subjects, photos and hypotheses were discussed!

From the right: Geert Schmidt-Stohn (DE), Francesco Bellù (IT), Tor-Erik Brandrud (NO), Bernd Oertel (DE), Bálint Dima (HU), Günter Saar (DE), Tobias Guldberg Frøslev (DK). Not in picture, Hildegard, our Hostess.

A good day in the field on southern Sealand

Some years, the late season can be good on normally very dry, coastal localities in southern Denmark:
Species list: C. infractus, C. anserinus, C. olidus, C. foetens, C. caesiocortinatus, C. rufo-olivaceus, C. flavovirens, C. alcalinophilus, C. talus, C. multiformium (C. polymorphus), C. aquilanus, C. cisticola, C. osmophorus, C. sodagintus, C. eucaeruleus, C. variecolor, C. argenteolilacinus.

Phlegmacium season has started

Due to heavy rain showers in June and juli, Phlegmaciums have started fruiting in Scandinavia. So far we have seen C. multiformis and C. sphagnophilus (photo) in moist Picea forest in Sweden.

Two species added to the key

C. bulbopodius s. Brandrud

The work on Funga Nordica 2nd edition is in progress, the new edition will contain more than 3000 species. The Phlegmacium key will only be extended with two species, since we have chosen only to include species which we have sufficient data on, and an appropriate name for. Both new species belongs to Sect. Percomes. The species are C. russeoides (which is genetically distinct and more slender than C. mussivus) and C. bulbopodius s. Brandrud.

The Phlegmacium Website relaunched at Cortinarius.org

In 1999, The Phlegmacium Website was introduced on http://hjem.get2net.dk/phlegmacium and a few years later it was moved to http://www.cortinarius.com.
The main feature of the website is a growing photo catalogue, exploiding the dynamic nature of the www to provide updates when new articles are published causing changes to nomenclature or taxonomy.
Unfortunately, the cortinarius.com domain was lost in late 2009, but we are relauncing in late 2011 at http://www.cortinarius.org. Please spread the word, and update links pointing to the old site.

Featured species: Cortinarius cliduchus ss G. Saar

Cortinarius cliduchus ss G. Saar is a fairly anonymous species; whitish gills, stem and flesh and an ochraceous yellow cap. Species with these characters has often been lumped together under the name Cortinarius langei Hry. C. cliduchus is distinguished from superficially resembling species by a slimy/sticky bright yellow girdle at the bulb margin. The species is very rare througout Europe. We saw it for the first time in Karlstadt, Germany in 2000, since then we have collected it in France, Ain, a couple of localities in southern Denmark and most recently, during the 20th Nordic Mycological Congress on Gotland, Sweden. The latter collection is the northernmost known occurance of the species. Genetically, it is in the Percomes clade, like C. pseudoarcuatorum, which has a similar habitus (shape of the bulb, and sometimes slightly umbonate cap).