| Russula exalbicans (Pers.) Melzer & Zvára |
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common name(s) : Bleached Brittlegill
synonyms: Russula pulchella, Russula depallens edibility : discard
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The cap is pale red to Bordeaux, quickly fading with only a reddish margin, sometimes with greenish tints, convex then expanded or depressed; its margin is smooth. The cap surface is smooth, a bit sticky when damp. The stem is white, sometimes washed with pink or red, without ring. The flesh is white, unchanging; its taste is average hot to mild; the odour is faint, fruity; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick). The gills are cream to ochre yellowish, adnexed, crowded . The spore print is pale ochre (E-F). This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in the woods, parks, gardens, on a rather calcareous soil, with birch only. The fruiting period takes place from April to November.
Chemical tests : flesh becoming salmon pink when in contact with iron sulphate; moderate purple reaction of cap cystidia to sulpho-vanillin. Distinctive features : creamy to yellow gills; white flesh, turning grey with age or in damp weather; taste hot at first, then mild; pink or blood-red to purple cap surface, sometimes with greenish shades, discolouring to cream except at the rim, slightly sticky in damp weather; with birch only Russula exalbicans is quite rare and localised in the forest of Rambouillet, and is occasional, more generally speaking . | ||
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page updated on 14/01/18