Russula badia    Quél. 

common name(s) : Burning Brittlegill 

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

synonyms: Russula friesii 

edibility : inedible

potential confusions with  Russula badia toxicity of Russula badia genus Russula  

The cap is dark red-brown, dark red to coppery, convex then a bit depressed; its margin is smooth to briefly striate with age. The cap surface is smooth, shiny, not sticky nor viscid.

The stem is white, often washed with pink on one side or towards base, without ring.

The flesh is white, unchanging; its taste is first mild then very hot; the odour is cedar like, red wine cork or resin, slightly irritant; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are cream then yellowish, adnexed, crowded . The spore print is dark ochre. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in coniferous woods, with conifers, in particular Scots pine.

The fruiting period takes place from June to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 9 cm (between 3 and 13 cm)
  height of stem approximately 8 cm (between 3 and 11 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 10 and 30 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming orange pink when in contact with iron sulphate; slow reaction to Gaïac (pale blue); cap cystidia reacting purple to sulpho-vanillin.

Distinctive features : dark red to copper-brown cap with a shiny surface; taste mild for a rather long time then extremely pungent; butter-yellow gills; white stem, flushed with pink in places; with conifers, more often in mountainous regions

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



page updated on 14/01/18