Type: Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Russula rubescens sp. nov. (original description)

Pileus: convex, finally expanded and depressed, 5-8 cm. broad; surface red, margin paler, fading with age, thin, striate; context mild to the taste; lamellae rather close, white, adnate, forked, especially at the base.

Spores: pale-yellow, subglobose, 7-9 microns, rough, echinulate; cystidia large, numerous, 50-65 X 10-12 microns.

Stipe: white, at length becoming cinereous without and within, often blackening with age or in drying, quickly becoming red and then black when wounded, stuffed, becoming hollow.

This species seems especially well marked. The reddening of the stipe when scraped is seen in certain members of the Compactae, but a red species which has this character is a novelty. It suggests in some ways R. depallens Fries, which seems to be a puzzle to European mycologists. It is believed by them, however, to be different from that species. As it grows, I find the stipe always becoming blackish within and without at the base. (Beardslee, 1914)

Beardslee, H. (1914). Notes on a Few Asheville Fungi. Mycologia, 6(2), 88-92. doi:10.2307/3753637

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