Russulas - beautiful and deceitful

A typical russula

My relationship with genus Russula has never been an easy one. There are some things that are so great about them: they are among the first mushrooms to appear in the forest and among the last to finish fruiting, they are abundant, they are colourful and good-looking. Some of these fungi are quite delicious, too, and this is where I have an issue with them.

Same mushroom from below

It is actually very easy to identify a mushroom as some kind of russula: the form of the cap, stem and gills are all very distinctive. However, distinguishing between the 750 or so species within the genus is a nightmare. After carefully considering form, colour, ecology and spore print, you are typically left with 3 or 4 possibilities, one of which would be edible, one toxic, and the rest inedible or not worthwhile. Arrgh!! I don't want to take any chances!

One could argue that identification in the case of russulas is less critical than for amanitas. Indeed, no one has ever died of consuming a russula, but there are still many among them that are bitter or have unpleasant taste, or worse. Take Russula emetica for instance: eat one of those, and over the next few hours you will be stuck in the loo, with both ends of your digestive tract adversely affected. Not fatal, but extremely unpleasant! The fact that russulas appear so early in the year makes this dilemma even more excruciating. It is easy to give a miss to mushrooms with uncertain ID when your basket is already getting full, but it's a different story when all you manage to collect is a couple of handfuls.

Take the fungus in the photos above, for instance. Is it Russula decolorans? fragilis? or an unusually coloured olivacea? There is no way to know for sure, so with much regret, I put this beautiful specimen back where I found it, and go back home with just the chanterelles. Because I could never mistake them for anything else.