Russula nigricans    Fr. 

common name(s) : Blackening Brittlegill, Blackening Russula 

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

edibility : discard

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

The cap is brown to black; its margin is smooth. The cap surface is smooth, not viscid nor sticky.

The stem is grey-white then black, without ring.

The flesh is turning red, then black when exposed to air; its taste is mild; the odour is faint, fruity or of cooked lobster; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick).

The gills are white to black, adnate to emarginate, distant . The spore print is whitish to pale cream. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved and coniferous woods, with oak, beech.

The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 14 cm (between 5 and 25 cm)
  height of stem approximately 6 cm (between 3 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 25 mm (between 10 and 40 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming pink then greenish when in contact with iron sulphate; quick and intense blue-green reaction to Gaïac; vinaceous brown to phenol; no reaction to sulpho-vanillin.

Distinctive features : distant and thick gills, forked and fragile; flesh reddening quickly when exposed to air before blackening; stem blackening when touched

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



page updated on 14/01/18