Russula flavida

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

by Michael Kuo

This beautiful mushroom is fairly common under hardwoods in eastern North America. Its dry cap and stem are bright yellow, and the cap margin is only faintly lined, if it is lined at all. Neither the bruised stem nor the sliced flesh turns grayish, and the taste is mild. Most other bright yellow species of Russula differ on one or more of these features.

Russula flavida is edible; I have not tried it.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods, especially oaks (occasionally reported under conifers); growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, but apparently more common in the southeast.

Cap: 2-8 cm; convex with an inrolled margin when young, later flat or broadly convex, often with a central depression; dry; smooth or finely velvety; yellow to orangish yellow; not bruising; the cap "skin" peeling easily from the margin about halfway to the center; the margin not lined or faintly lined at maturity.

Gills: Attached to the stem; crowded or close; white becoming pale yellow; not bruising or discoloring.

Stem: 3-8 cm long; 1-2.5 cm thick; dry; smooth or very finely hairy; colored like the cap overall, but paler toward the apex; not bruising; firm and stuffed, or becoming hollow with age.

Flesh: White; not changing on exposure.

Taste: Mild; odor not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Iron salts salmon on stem surface. KOH reaction of cap surface not recorded in the literature, but in my experience pale magenta (see illustration).

Spore Print: Yellow according to the literature, but I have made collections with white spore prints.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-7 x 5.5-8.5 µ; nearly round; ornamented with warts under 1 µ high (mostly .3-.6 µ); with amyloid connecting lines forming a partial or nearly complete reticulum.

REFERENCES: Frost & Peck, 1880. (Kauffman, 1918; Bills & Miller, 1984; Phillips, 1991/2005.) Herb. Kuo 07290304.

Russula flavipes is a virtually identical species described in McKnight & McKnight in the Peterson field guide (1987). I can find no features, based on the brief description, to separate it from Russula flavida. In the absence of a technical description it appears to be the same mushroom. McKnight & McKnight do not cite a species author, and I find no other reference to Russula flavipes in the literature.

Further Online Information:

Russula flavida at Macrofungi of Costa Rica
Russula flavida at Roger's Mushrooms

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, January). Russula flavida. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/russula_flavida.html