Spores 9–10µ diameter Massee.
In pine and mixed woods. July to October.
Color same as R. rubra but differs in its hard cheesy flesh, rigid, slightly yellowish gills in age. The gills of R. sanguinea are truly decurrent, and pointed in front.
Poisonous. Stevenson. Krapp says he has experienced grave inconveniences from eating it.
Myself and very many friends eat all fresh inviting Russulæ. We do not discriminate against a single peppery or acrid species, not even the R. emetica which has been severely maligned. In fact the peppery Russulæ are usually substantial in flesh and choice in substance.
The opinion of many is that R. sanguinea is one of the best. I have eaten it for years.
R. depal´lens Pers.—palleo, to be pale. Pileus 3–4 in. across, pallid-reddish or inclining to dingy-brown, etc., fleshy, firm, convex, then plane, more rarely depressed, but commonly irregularly shaped and undulated, even, the thin, adnate pellicle presently changing color, especially at the disk, the spreading margin even, but slightly striate when old. Flesh white. Stem about 1½ in. long, solid, firm, commonly attenuated downward, white, becoming cinereous when old. Gills adnexed, broad, crowded, distinct, but commonly forked at the base, often with shorter ones intermixed. Inodorous, taste mild. The color of the pileus is at first pallid-reddish, or inclining to brownish, then whitish or yellowish, opaque in every stage of growth. It approaches nearest to the Heterophyllæ. Fries.
In beech woods, pastures, etc. August to September.
Spores subglobose, echinulate, 7–8µ Massee.
R. depallens somewhat resembles R. heterophylla. Both are edible. It is a solitary grower and not common, but when found it occurs in good quantity. It belongs to the best class of Russulæ.