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Sunday 5 September 2010

Waterfront Museum

I found a selection of mushrooms at the Waterfront Museum in the week all around one birch tree, including Russula.

Below are the finds. The top row is L-R: Leccinum scabrum, Lactarius pubescens and Paxillus involutus. The bottom row is, L-R: Unknown, Russula betularum, Russula puellaris, Incocybe and Melanoleuca.

The Melanoleuca was found in the new SA1 development on grass a bit further on and not with the rest.
At first I thought I had one type of Russula but it turned out to be two. Just looking at the basic characteristics in cap and stipe showed they were different.


The most noticeable difference is the gills, (see below). The Russula on the left has off white and crowded gills. The Russula on the right has crowded gills too but far less so than its neighbour. The colour is the other signifier. The gills are a yellow colour. In the other photo the stipe has the same yellow colour and the edge of the cap shows a deep furrowing emphasising the gills beneath. The yellowing of the gills and stipe comes with age.
I've concluded that this is possibly Russula puellaris/Yellowing Brittlegill.

The cap colour is different too. The cap in Russula puellaris has a characteristic furrow seen along the cap edge. The cap colour has a red wine, reddish shade of brown colour that's also darker in the centre. The cap is also depressed at the centre which is common in this mushroom. It loses colour in patches.

The Russula on the left is Russula betularum/Birch Brittlegill. It's the only really pink Russula and like lots of Russula, loses it's colour easily. The cracking on the cap is probably due to the dry weather but there is still a tint of pink left. Quite often the colour is completley lost not just in this Russula but most Russula which makes identification hard at times.


As for the unknown mushroom and the Inocybe, I have no idea. Inocybe are impossible to identify without a microscope I think. as for the other, I'll keep looking.

Waterfront Museum 02-09-10
Leccinum scabrum
Lactarius pubescens
Paxillus involutus
Russula betularum
Russula puellaris
Inocybe ?
and later
Melanoleuca cognata

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