Russula aquosa    Leclair 

common name(s) : Red Swamp Brittlegill 

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

edibility : unknown edibility

potential confusions with  Russula aquosa toxicity of Russula aquosa genus Russula  

The cap is rose to cherry red, convex-flattened to depressed at the centre; its margin is striate. The cap surface is smooth, greasy to the touch in dry weather, viscid and shiny when damp.

The stem is watery-white, washed with brown or grey, without ring.

The flesh is white, unchanging; its taste is acrid; the odour is faint, of coconut, radish or iodine; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are dirty white, almost free to slightly emarginate, crowded . The spore print is whitish to pale cream. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in birch or coniferous woods, in marshy grounds with birch, spruce, pine.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 7 cm (between 3 and 10 cm)
  height of stem approximately 7 cm (between 4 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 15 mm (between 10 and 25 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming pale pink when in contact with iron sulphate; faint reaction to Gaïac; flesh becoming slowly reacting purple to phenol; cap cystidia moderately purple to sulpho-vanillin.

Distinctive features : viscid in damp weather; dull white gills; in damp places, swamps, marshlands

Russula aquosa is quite rare and confined in the forest of Rambouillet, and is quite rare, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Russula aquosa in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Russula aquosa in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18