Boring White Russula (Russula albidula)

🏷️ Description

Among the vast and colorful diversity of mushrooms in North America’s woodlands, Russula albidula stands out by... barely standing out. 🤍 Often dismissed as the "Boring White Russula" or "Whitish Brittlegill", this modest mushroom hides in plain sight — but don't let its dull appearance fool you. With a biting acrid taste and a knack for showing up in poor soils, this mushroom leaves a stronger impression on the tongue than on the eyes!

🔬 Taxonomy & Naming

Scientific name: Russula albidula Peck (1898)

Common names: Boring White Russula, Whitish Brittlegill

Family: Russulaceae

Order: Russulales

🍽️ Edibility

Although not poisonous, Russula albidula is highly acrid and peppery, deterring any culinary use. The taste ranges from moderate to intensely bitter. Definitely not recommended for your wild mushroom risotto!

🔎 Identification

🍄 Cap

• Size: (1.0 to 3.9 inches) 2.5 to 10 cm broad

• Shape: Convex to plano-convex, sometimes with a central depression

• Color: White to cream, yellowing with age or when dry; sometimes buff at the center

• Surface: Glabrous and subviscid when moist; cuticle peelable at the margin

• Margin: Often striate (faintly lined), decurved or upturned with age

🌿 Gills

• Attachment: Adnate to slightly decurrent

• Spacing: Close when young, subdistant at maturity

• Color: White, becoming cream

• Width: (0.3 to 0.4 inches) 8–10 mm

• Features: Brittle; occasionally forked; edges even

📏 Stem

• Size: (1.2 to 2.4 inches) 3 to 6 cm long × (0.6 to 1.0 inches) 1.5 to 2.5 cm thick

• Shape: Equal, round, straight

• Color: White, unchanging

• Texture: Smooth, sometimes obscurely striate; brittle and soft

⚪ Flesh

• Color: White, unchanging

• Texture: Fragile, soft at maturity

• Odor: Indistinct

• Taste: Acrid to very acrid

🌾 Habitat & Distribution

This modest mushroom appears solitary or in scattered groups on the forest floor, particularly in:

• 🍂 Deciduous and mixed woods, often near oak trees

• 🌲 Coniferous edges and coastal hardwood-conifer forests

• 🛣 Poor soils, including trailsides and disturbed areas

Season: Late fall through mid-winter

Range: Eastern North America, with notable presence in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sierra Nevada foothills

🔬 Spore Print & Microscopic Features

• Spore print: Pale cream to yellow

• Spores: (6.5–9.5 × 6–7.5 µm), subglobose to broadly ellipsoid

• Surface ornamentation: Low amyloid warts, lines, and occasional ridges; not fully reticulate

• In deposit: Pale yellow to cream

👀 Look-Alikes

R. albidula can be confused with many other cream or white Russulas, including:

• Russula cremoricolor – More acrid, white spores, and gills

• Russula albida – Tuberculate-striate margin, white gills/spores

• Russula burgeae – Cream gills/spores, mild taste, rare

• Russula ochroleuca – Creamy-yellow cap, reticulate spores

• Russula raoultii – Very acrid, reticulate white spores

• Russula basifurcata – Cream cap tinged pinkish, forked gills, mild taste

Non-Russula look-alikes:

• White waxycaps (Hygrophorus spp.)

• Tricholoma spp.

🧠 Summary

Russula albidula may be visually underwhelming, but it's a fascinating species for those passionate about mushroom identification. Its acrid taste, pale coloring, and habitat preferences under oaks make it a reliable (if unappetizing) find in North American forests. Just be sure to look, not taste! 👃🚫👅

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jason Hollinger (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Jason Hollinger (CC BY 4.0)