Russula decolorans    (Fr.:Fr.) Fr. 

common name(s) : Copper Brittlegill 

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

edibility : edible

potential confusions with  Russula decolorans toxicity of Russula decolorans genus Russula  

The cap is orange red to pale brick red; its margin is striate when mature. The cap surface is smooth, viscid in wet weather.

The stem is white then blackish, without ring.

The flesh is turning greyish when exposed to air; its taste is mild; the odour is not distinctive; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are cream to yellowish, free to emarginate, crowded . The spore print is cream to pale ochre (E-F). This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in coniferous woods, on a rather acid soil, with pine, spruce.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 8 cm (between 4 and 12 cm)
  height of stem approximately 8 cm (between 4 and 12 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 15 mm (between 10 and 25 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming orange pink then slowly greenish when in contact with iron sulphate; purple reaction of cap cystidia to sulpho-vanillin; quick reaction to Gaïac (bright blue).

Distinctive features : orange-yellow to copper cap; white then cream-yellow gills, blackening; flesh turning grey-black in wounds or when exposed to air, sometimes with a reddish transient shade; favouring humid places; mostly in the mountains

Russula decolorans is still unreported so far in the forest of Rambouillet, and is quite rare, more generally speaking .



page updated on 14/01/18