Russula delica Fr. Blaubdättiger Täubling, Russule sans lait, Milk-white Brittlegill. Cap 5–16cm across, convex, cup- or funnel-shaped, whitish, often tinged yellow brownish, matt, dry, thick-fleshed; margin strongly inrolled. Stem 20–60 x 20–40mm, white, often bluish at apex, hard. Flesh white, unchanging. Taste hot and acrid with a bitter tang; smell distinctive, slightly of bugs and reminiscent of certain Lactarius, sometimes fishy. Gills decurrent, whitish, often tinged bluish towards the stem, often forked or with cross-connections, interspersed with numerous short gills. Spore print white, to slightly creamy (A–B). Spores ovoid with warts 0.5–1.5µ high, often in chains or occasionally joined by fine lines not enclosing meshes, or sometimes more abundant and forming a network, 8–12 x 7–9µ. Cap cystidia worm-like to narrow cylindrical, hardly reacting to SV. Habitat under both broad-leaved and coniferous trees. Season autumn. Common. Edible – poor, unpleasant tasting -avoid. (Never eat any mushroom until you are certain it is edible as many are poisonous and some are deadly poisonous) Distribution, America and Europe. |