Cortinarius erythraeus           " Ruby cortinarius "

Re-introducing this fungus into revegetation

Make spore prints onto local soil, and incorporate spores with soil into nursery mix (Click here for the mushroom method). Put this fungus in pots with mycorrhizal plants such as eucalypts, sheoaks, and poison peas. Do not use with non-mycorrhizal plants such as banksias.

More about Cortinarius erythraeus

Bougher & Syme (1998) page 248
Fungi of Southern Australia. 
University of Western Australia Press.

How to recognize it:  The ruby cortinarius is distinguished by its red, slimy cap and lower stem. A dark purple reaction will instantly occur if you apply a drop of alkali like ammonia to the cap. 

Where to find it: In the litter of eucalypt forests and woodlands. In Western Australian woodlands it often favours areas with York gums (Eucalyptus loxophleba). Often it may be partially covered by litter, but the striking colour cannot be easily missed.

Edibility: unknown.

Lifemode: mycorrhizal.

Main features

Cap 15–50 mm broad, flat-convex when young, then flat or upturned at maturity. Bright red becoming more orange-red with age, persistently slimy, but shiny if drying out. 

Gills to 5 mm deep, closely spaced, purplish at first, finally rusty brown. 

Stem 25–40 x 5–10 mm, cylindrical or with a slightly swollen base, solid at first, then with a narrow hollow; upper stem dull beige with appressed rusty (due to spore deposit) fibrils culminating in a ragged zone of fibrils; lower stem red (similar to cap), slimy. 

Inner veil cobweb-like, rapidly disappearing, pale pinkish. 

Basal mycelium yellow. 

Odour and Taste not distinctive 

Spores

Deposit: rust brown.

Under microscope: bright yellow-brown, broad ellipsoid to ovoid, warty.