The stem is one to three inches long, slightly tapering upward, stuffed or somewhat cavernous, white tinged with red. The spores are yellow, round. Peck, 51 R.
This plant is widely distributed from Maine to the West. It grows best in pine and hemlock woods, but sometimes found in mixed woods. It is found in July and August.
Russula fragilis. Fr.
The Tender Russula.
Figure 152.—Russula fragilis.
Fragilis means fragile.
The pileus is rather small, flesh-color or red, or reddish; thin, fleshy only at the disk; at first convex and often umbonate, then plane, depressed; cuticle thin, becoming pale, viscid in wet weather, margin tuberculate-striate.
The gills are thin, ventricose, white, slightly adnexed, equal, crowded, sometimes slightly eroded at the edge. The spores are minutely echinulate, 8–10×8µ.