Russula aurora

Description

The main distinguished feature from the other Russula species is the color of the cap which is pink to yellow in the center. The gills are white to cream. It is considered an edible mushroom, but with low value. It is used after 15 minutes of boiling.

Russula aurora grows under deciduous broadleaf trees, including Beech, Sweet Chestnut, and hornbeams. Its cap edge and gill extremities tend to wrinkle and distort in dry weather. It is widespread in Europe.

Common names: Dawn Brittlegill, Netzflockiger Rosa-Täubling (German), Plávka čipkovaná / Holubinka jitřenková (Slovakia).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   4-10 cm in diameter, fleshy, hemispherical, convex, later depressed-spreading, with a smooth, wavy and lobed edge with age. The surface is dry, matte, velvety, pink, red, orange, yellow, ocher, and darker in the center.

2. Gills

   The hymenophore is lamellar. The gills are thick, attached, or almost free, initially whitish, later cream.

3. Stem

   4-9 cm high, 1-2.5 cm in diameter, cylindrical or slightly club-shaped, at first solid, later with cavities, smooth or slightly wrinkled, white, sometimes partially pinkish.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is dense, later brittle, white, with a sweetish or slightly bitter taste, and with an indistinct smell.

5. Spores

   6-8.5 * 5-7 μm, elliptical in shape, with medium ornamentation.

6. Spore Print

   Whitish.

7. Habitat

   It grows from June to September, in deciduous forests, with oaks, lindens, hornbeams, on rich organic soils, singly or in groups.

Look-Alikes

1. Russula sanguinaria

   Has a red-flushed stem.

2. Russula paludosa

   Has cream gills and is larger.

3. Russula rosea

   Has a significantly firmer flesh that often tastes like menthol, usually a pinkish stem and light cream-colored spore dust.

4. Russula velenovskyi

   Has ocher spore dust.

5. Russula minutula

   Forms very small fruiting bodies with a cap usually up to 30 mm wide.

6. Russula emeticicolor and Russula lilacea

   Have isolated warty spores.

History

The Dawn Brittlegill mushroom, also known as Russula aurora, was originally named Agaricus aurora by Czech mycologist Julius Vincenz von Krombholz in 1836.

In 1888, French mycologist Lucien Quélet incorrectly applied the name Russula rosea to this mushroom, but it is now generally referred to by its correct scientific name. The Dawn Brittlegill mushroom has a pink cap, while the Russula aurora mushroom has an yellow-pink cap.

It is important to consider multiple characteristics, such as cap color, taste, peeling ability, and response to chemical tests, when identifying this mushroom, as brittlegills can vary in color.

The generic name Russula means red or reddish, and the specific epithet, aurora, comes from the Latin word for dawn.

Synonyms

1. Agaricus aurora Krombh. 1836

2. Russula lepida var. aurora (Krombh.) Rea, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 17(1-2): 44 (1932)

3. Russula rosea Quél., Fl. mycol. France (Paris): 349 (1888)

4. Russula rosea var. aurora (Krombh.) R.W. Rayner,: 77 (1985)

5. Russula velutipes Velen., České Houby 1: 133 (1920)

Video

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