Russula lepida    (Fr.:Fr.) Fr. 

common name(s) : Rosy Brittlegill, Beautiful Russula 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Incertae sedis/Russulales/Russulaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Agaricomycetideae/Russulales/Russulaceae  

synonyms: Russula rosacea, Russula rosea ss.Pers 

edibility : inedible

photo gallery of  Russula lepida
photo gallery of  Russula lepida potential confusions with  Russula lepida toxicity of Russula lepida genus Russula  

The cap is bright pink to bright red; its margin is smooth. The cap surface is smooth, not viscid nor sticky.

The stem is white, sometimes washed with pink or red, without ring.

The flesh is unchanging; its taste is mild; the odour is minty; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are cream, free to adnate, distant . The spore print is whitish to pale cream. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved and coniferous woods, with beech, hornbeam.

The fruiting period takes place from May to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 8 cm (between 2 and 15 cm)
  height of stem approximately 6 cm (between 3 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 1 and 35 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming slowly and faintly greenish-brown when in contact with iron sulphate; faint reaction to Gaïac; negative reaction of cap cystidia to sulpho-vanillin.

Distinctive features : Cap surface entirely pink or red, yellowish in places, matt, velvety; very tough flesh (like a green apple), incompressible stem, tinged with red; bitter or minty taste; creamy-white gills, sometimes with a red edge

Russula lepida is occasional and widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is frequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Russula lepida in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Russula lepida in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18