Biogeographical Expansion and Integrative Taxonomic Confirmation of <i>Cortinarius saniosus</i> (Fr.) Fr. and <i>C. desertorum</i> (Velen.) G. Garnier in Anatolia

The occurrence of Cortinarius saniosus (Fr.) Fr. and C. desertorum (Velen.) G. Garnier (subgenus Telamonia ) in montane Pinus sylvestris L. forests of Eastern Anatolia (Türkiye) represents a significant southeastward extension of their documented distribution ranges. The study combines macro‐ and micromorphological observations with newly generated ITS sequences deposited in GenBank as PZ244637 ( C. saniosus ; voucher MEA648) and PZ244638 ( C. desertorum ; voucher MEA878). The final phylogenetic dataset comprised 21 ITS sequences: two newly generated sequences, 17 reference sequences selected from type‐derived or diagnostically relevant material, and two outgroup taxa. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses placed PZ244637 within a well‐supported C. saniosus complex (ML/BI = 0.98/95) and PZ244638 within a strongly supported four‐taxon C. desertorum clade that includes the type sequence NR_171322 (ML/BI = 1.00/100). These results confirm both taxa from Eastern Anatolia and add molecularly characterized material from an underrepresented part of Eurasia. The study highlights the value of carefully vouchered collections, quality‐checked sequence data, and conservatively filtered reference sampling for resolving synonym‐rich lineages of Cortinarius subgenus Telamonia .