Major Groups > Gilled Mushrooms > Pale-Spored > Russula > Russula earlei

MushroomExpert.Com

Russula earlei

[ Basidiomycetes > Russulales > Russulaceae > Russula . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Many mushroom hunters are familiar with Hygrophorus russula--a Hygrophorus species that looks a lot like a Russula. Russula earlei might be fairly characterized as the opposite: a Russula that looks like a Hygrophorus. Its waxy-textured cap, along with its thick and distantly spaced gills, are not typical for the genus--but once you have determined it's a russula, Russula earlei is easily identified, since nothing else (in North America) comes close.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks, beech, and perhaps with other hardwoods; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; apparently widely distributed east of the Great Plains.

Cap: 3-11 cm; convex when young, becoming broadly convex to flat, sometimes with a shallow depression; a little sticky when wet; finely rugged, with a waxy-granular feel; the surface often cracking up with age; straw yellow to dirty orangish yellow; the margin not lined, or faintly lined at maturity; the skin tightly adnate, not peeling easily.

Gills: Attached to the stem or beginning to run down it; distant; whitish to creamy, becoming dull yellow; often with a water-soaked appearance; sometimes spotting and discoloring reddish brown.

Stem: 2.5-7 cm long; .5-2.5 cm thick; whitish to dull yellow; dry, but with a waxy feel and a water-soaked appearance; sometimes discoloring reddish brown near the base; fairly smooth; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: White to yellowish.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild, or slightly bitter or acrid.

Spore Print: White.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface dull red to reddish brown; iron salts on stem surface negative to pinkish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3.5-6.5 x 5.5-7 µ; warts mostly isolated, extending to about .5 µ high; connectors scattered, not usually creating reticulated areas. Subhymenium prosenchymatous. Pileipellis a partially gelatinized cutis of mostly repent elements, hyaline to brownish in KOH, with cylindric-irregular terminal cells that feature rounded to squarish apices; pileocystidia absent.


REFERENCES: Peck, 1902. (Saccardo, 1905; Burlingham, 1915; Beardslee, 1918; Bills & Miller, 1984; Kibby & Fatto, 1990; Shaffer, 1990; Phillips, 1991/2005; Roody, 2003; Binion et al., 2008.) Herb. Kuo 07290702, 08020802.


This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.


 

Russula earlei

Russula earlei

Russula earlei

Russula earlei

Russula earlei

Russula earlei


© MushroomExpert.Com




Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2009, March). Russula earlei. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/russula_earlei.html