Russula variata

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by Michael Kuo

Russula variata, as its name suggests, has very variable colors. The cap is often some shade of olive green mixed with brown, but purplish and rose shades are frequently mixed in. Sometimes even white and/or yellow join the party. Usually, one of the various colors is predominant, but mottled specimens are common. In short, cap color is not going to help you identify this mushroom--which means that comparing Russula variata to photos is not likely to help in the identification process.

Even though Russula variata might as well be described as having just about any cap color it feels like having, it is still a fairly easy Russula species to identify (and there aren't many!). It is the gills that make this mushroom distinctive: they are white, and they fork repeatedly and often, from the stem to the cap margin (see the illustration to the right).

Russula variata is edible. MushroomExpert.Com contributor John David Moore has eaten it a few times, and reports that while it isn't exactly a delicacy, it is "not bad."

A similar species, Russula cyanoxantha, has gills that do not fork (or that fork only occasionally, near the stem). It is also edible. See my comments below for help separating the two species.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods, especially oaks; growing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed but more frequently encountered in eastern North America.

Cap: 5-15 cm; round to convex when young, becoming broadly convex to flat with a shallow depression; dry or slightly moist (never slimy); so variable in color that listing the colors hinders, rather than helps, the identification process--but often with olive, green, brown, rose, purple, white, and yellow shades (sometimes mottled, sometimes more or less uniformly one of these colors); the margin even and smooth, or very slightly lined in older specimens; skin peeling away easily at the margin, sometimes nearly half-way to the center.

Gills: Attached or slightly running down the stem; close or crowded; forking frequently and conspicuously, near the stem, near the cap margin, and in-between; white; occasionally spotting slightly brownish in age, but not bruising, and remaining white.

Stem: 3-10 cm long; 1-3 cm thick; white, occasionally discoloring brownish in places but not actually bruising; brittle; dry; often becoming cavernous (see illustration); smooth.

Flesh: White; brittle; thick.

Taste: Mild according to Smith (1979) and according to my experience; slightly to strongly acrid according to many authors; odor not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-11.5 x 5.5-9.5 µ; with warts .3-1 µ high; nearly elliptical or egg-shaped.

REFERENCES: Banning, published in Peck, 1906. (Kauffman, 1918; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005.) Herb. Kuo 06239509, 09030201.

Russula cyanoxantha is a similarly variable species widely distributed in North America, but less common than Russula variata, according to most authors. It also grows under hardwoods, and has a white spore print. The principal difference between it and Russula variata is the forking of the gills, which is either absent or limited to a few forkings near the stem. Some authors treat Russula variata as Russula cyanoxantha var. variata.

REFERENCES: Russula cyanoxantha: (Schweinitz) Fries, 1865. (Kauffman, 1918; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992.)

Further Online Information:

Russula variata at Roger's Mushrooms

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Cite this page as:

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