Russula xerampelina    (Schaeff.) Fr. 

common name(s) : Crab Brittlegill 

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

synonyms: Russula erythropoda, Russula xerampelina-erythropoda, Russula erythropus, Russula sanguinea ss.Vel. 
(unconfirmed synonyms: Russula xerampelina-olivascens, Russula xerampelina-erythropus)  

edibility : discard

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

The cap is bright blood red to Bordeaux, almost black at the centre; its margin is striate when mature. The cap surface is smooth, a bit viscid in wet weather.

The stem is white washed with purple red, without ring.

The flesh is white, turning brown when exposed to air; its taste is mild; the odour is of cooked seafood, herring or of iodine; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are yellowish to buff, free to adnate, distant . The spore print is dark cream to pale ochre. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved and coniferous woods, on a rather acid soil, most of the time with pine, but also with spruce, fir, Douglas fir.

The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 9 cm (between 3.5 and 15 cm)
  height of stem approximately 7 cm (between 3 and 11 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 10 and 35 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming dark greenish when in contact with iron sulphate; negative reaction of cap cystidia to sulpho-vanillin.

Distinctive features : Blood-red to dark red cap, with a darker centre; smell of cooked crab, especially for old specimens; stem and flesh getting brown when touched; stem slightly veined; edge of gills purple red; flesh reacting green to iron sulphate

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



page updated on 14/01/18