Russula puellaris

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal; found under hardwoods or conifers (especially spruces), often in moss; growing alone or scattered; summer and fall; apparently widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 2-6 cm; convex when young, becoming broadly convex to flat, sometimes with a shallow depression and an arched margin; sticky when wet; fairly smooth; purple to rose purple with an almost blackish center at first, becoming pinkish to reddish and eventually brown as the underlying flesh yellows; the margin widely and strongly lined; the skin peeling easily, often more than halfway to the center.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; creamy, becoming yellow with maturity.

Stem: 2.5-7 cm long; .5-1.5 cm thick; white at first, but eventually discoloring dull yellow over the entire surface; dry, but with a water-soaked appearance; fairly smooth; hollowing.

Flesh: Thin; white, becoming dull yellow.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild.

Spore Print: Pale yellow.

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

Microscopic Features: Spores 6.5-9 x 5.5-7 (but reported by Roberts [2008] as 8-11 x 7-9 in the Pacific Northwest); with mostly isolated warts extending <NOBR>.5-1.2 </NOBR> high; connectors scattered, not usually creating reticulated areas--but occasionally forming broken reticula. Pileipellis a cutis embedded in a gelatinous matrix; pileocystidia abundant, subclavate to clavate, to about 150 x 10 , with 1-4 septa, ochraceous-refractive in KOH and positive in sulphovanillin; mature specimens with areas of golden yellow hyphal ends and pileocystidia.

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