The stem is stout, nearly cylindric, firm but spongy in the center and colored like the cap, but generally a little paler. There is a variety in which the stem is white and the cap deep red. In other respects it is like the typical form. Its name is Russula ochrophylla albipes.
The ochery-gilled Russula grows in groups under trees, especially oak trees, and should be sought in July and August. Peck, 51st Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, July to September, McIlvaine.
Edible. Peck, 50th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Ri’gidæ.
R. lac’tea Fr.—lac, milk. Pileus 2 in. broad, at the first milk-white, then tan-white, throughout compactly fleshy, bell-shaped, then convex, often excentric, without a pellicle, always dry, at the first even, then slightly cracked when dry, margin straight, thin, obtuse, even. Flesh compact, white. Stem 1½-2 in. long, 1½ in. thick, solid, very compact, but at length spongy-soft within, equal, even, always white. Gills free, very broad, thick, distant, rigid, forked, white. Fries.
Spores subglobose, echinulate, 7–9µ Massee.
Closely allied to R. albella Pk. from which it differs in its shorter stem, and pileus cracking into areolæ, and gills not being entire.
In mixed woods, in patches, not common.
Botanic creek, West Philadelphia, Pa., patches, McIlvaine, 1887.