E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Clade Russula core. Features include 1) a viscid cap that is deep red to vinaceous red or brownish red, often mottled with yellow areas, 2) white to cream gills and spore deposit, 3) a white stem often with a pinkish flush, 4) geranium or fruity odor, and 5) growth under Douglas-fir and Western Hemlock. The description is derived from Hyde(2). It is common at least in WA.

Russula pseudopelargonia is known from WA west of the Cascade Mountains and from southern BC (Hyde(2)).

Gills:
adnate, normally spaced (about 1 gill per mm), equal or with a few, sometimes very short subgills, and occasional bifurcations; cream (of Woo collections, about 75% recorded as cream and about 25% as white)

Stem:
"most often shorter than the cap diameter", nearly equal or more often widening downwards; "white but often with a pinkish flush in the lower half, not bruising or with some yellowish brown stains at the base"

Odor:
fruity or more often reminiscent of Pelargonium (geranium)

Taste:
medium to very peppery in gills and flesh

Microscopic spores:
spores (5.9)7.8-7.9(9.8) x (4.8)6.3-6.4(7.9) microns, "ornamented with amyloid, relatively high, conical warts" (0.2)0.7(1.4) microns high, "with rare interconnections", "suprahilar spot present as a strongly amyloid patch"; basidia 4-spored, (33)38-49(54) x (7)9-12(13) microns, stout and clavate; hymenial cystidia 60-70 x 7-8 microns, clavate; clamp connections absent

Spore deposit:
cream (of Woo collections, about 25% Crawshay A and about 75% Crawshay B-C)