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Red Russula at an oak base
Russula sp. Genus
Angles captured. One from above showing the whole cap, then three low profiles from slightly different positions against the tree base.
Morphology
A single large fruitbody. Cap 10–12 cm, bright scarlet to deep rose-red, the thin cuticle splitting and peeling back to expose pure white flesh at the margin and across the disc. The cap has split deeply and one section has lifted and folded upward, so that from a low angle the raised piece and the remaining disc read convincingly as two separate mushrooms. Gills white to pale cream, crowded, brittle, narrowly adnexed, and clearly visible on the upturned section. Stipe pure white, stout, cylindrical, chalky.
Habitat & substrate
Bare humus at the base of a large oak, with fern and low herbs nearby. Ectomycorrhizal, terrestrial.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Genus is secure: brittle white chalky stipe, brittle white gills, thin separable red cuticle. Species within the red-capped group needs chemistry and taste. Within Russula this sits in the red-capped group, which is not separable to species in the field.
To confirm this identification
Taste a fragment of gill and spit it out — acrid or mild splits the group roughly in half. Then a spore print and a drop of KOH on the cap.
Notes
Photographed eight days before the first Broad Meadow Brook walk of Volume 1, and almost certainly the same species as TM0021 there. The rainfall pattern is the same story in miniature: 1.78″ fell in the week before, including 1.21″ two days earlier.
Corrected. This was first written up as two fruitbodies side by side. It is one mushroom with a split, partly upturned cap — the same perspective trap that produced the TM0040 and TM0010 errors.
Found at Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, Worcester, MA on Thursday, 23 July 2026 at 16:00. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Rosy-capped mushroom on a mossy logRussula sp. · Oct 25Moderate
Yellow-capped RussulaRussula sp. · Jul 31Moderate
Salmon-pink Russula on mossRussula sp. · Jul 31Moderate
Cluster with cracked orange-brown capsLactifluus or Lactarius · Jul 31Moderate
Rose-red Russula on mossRussula sp. · Aug 1High for genus
Large grey-brown brittlegillRussula sp. · Aug 1Moderate
Rosy cap with orange gillsLactarius sp. · Aug 6Moderate
Pink Russula on a mossy rockRussula sp. · Aug 6Moderate–high