Among the most frequent and readily recognized of species, occurring in troops. Always small, thin, taste mild. Allied to R. nitida, but more slender; color paler, and not shining. Fries.
Distinguished from R. nitida and R. nauseosa by the absence of smell. Massee.
Var. inten´sior Cke. Nearly the same size as the typical form; pileus deep purple, nearly black at the disk.
The stem has a tendency to become thickened at the base, and turns yellowish when touched.
Var. rose´ipes Sec., given by Massee, has been retained as a distinct species by Professor Peck, Rep. 51, and is described in place. R. pusilla Pk., 50th Rep., is closely allied to it.
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina. Common in woods and under trees in short grass. July to September. McIlvaine.
This little Russula is ubiquitous. It does not amount to much when other fungi are plenty, because of its very thin cap, but it thrives in all sorts of summer weather. When its companions are scarce or parched R. puellaris is gladly gathered by the mycophagist, its numbers making up for its lightness and lack of flavor.
R. pusil´la Pk.—little. Pileus very thin, nearly plane or slightly and umbilicately depressed in the center, glabrous, slightly striate on the margin, red, sometimes a little darker in the center, the thin pellicle separable. Flesh white, taste mild. Lamellæ broad for the size of the plant, subventricose, subdistant, adnate or slightly rounded behind, white, becoming yellowish-ochraceous in drying. Stem short, soft, solid or spongy within, white.
Spores faintly tinged with yellow, 7.6µ broad.
Pileus scarcely 1 in. broad. Stem 6–12 lines long, 2–3 lines thick.