Cortinarius scoticus

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Cortinarius scoticus is a small, brown mushroom that grows in damp pine forests across central and northern Europe. It was described in 2020 by Tuula Niskanen and Kare Liimatainen and named after Scotland, where the holotype was collected in the Black Wood of Rannoch. It was highlighted by Kew Gardens as one of six new British Cortinarius species described that year.

Description
- Cap: 0.7–1.5 cm wide, starts hemispherical and becomes low convex or almost flat, red-brown to dark red-brown and shiny as it dries.
- Gills: brown and moderately spaced.
- Stem: 4–6 cm long and 0.2–0.3 cm thick, cylindrical; young stems have white silky fibers that turn yellowish brown with age.
- Flesh and smell: flesh brown; the base of the stem has a weak iodoform-like odor, especially when the mushroom is dried a bit; the gill smell is indistinct.
- Veil: sparse, white at the stem base.

Microscopic features (summary)
- Spores: 7.5–8.8 by 4.5–5.5 μm, ellipsoid to almond-shaped, moderately warty; dextrinoid (stain reddish with Melzer’s reagent).
- Basidia: 25–34 by 7–10 μm, club-shaped with four sterigmata.
- The tissue at the pileipellis is pale with parallel hyphae and little to no encrustation; some lower cells show zebra-like encrustations.

Similar species
- In the field it can look like Cortinarius trossingenensis, but C. trossingenensis has smaller spores (about 4.5–5.5 by 4–4.5 μm) and is thus distinct.

Habitat
- Found in mesic, damp pine-dominated forests in central and northern Europe.