Russula tenuiceps

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks--especially northern red oak--and perhaps with other hardwoods; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed in eastern North America.

Cap: 7-12 cm; convex when young, becoming broadly convex to flat, sometimes with a shallow depression; sticky when fresh or wet; fairly smooth, or with low wrinkles; bright red but sometimes fading in age; the margin lined at maturity; the skin peeling fairly easily, often over halfway to the center.

Gills: Attached to the stem or running slightly down it; close or crowded; white when young but dull yellow with maturity.

Stem: 5-9 cm long; 2-2.5 cm thick; fragile and soon hollowing; flushed red over a white base color; dry; fairly smooth.

Flesh: Fragile; white; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste strongly acrid (sometimes slowly so).

Spore Print: Yellowish to orangish yellow.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative to yellowish or orangish; iron salts on stem surface negative to slowly pinkish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-9 x 5-7 ; with warts <NOBR>.5-1 </NOBR> high; connectors scattered, or occasionally forming partially reticulated areas. Pileipellis a cutis of hyaline elements embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Pileocystidia cylindric to subclavate or sometimes subfusoid to subcapitate; to about 100 x 10 ; positive in sulphovanillin and ochraceous-refractive in KOH.

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