Summary:
Features include a tendency for all parts to turn pink or purplish, a slight fibrillose veil and growth under conifers, especially spruce and pine, in spring as well as fall. Other features include a slightly viscid cap that is whitish to pink with darker splashes, streaks or fibrils; white flesh streaked pink at maturity; close to subdistant, white gills that are soon flushed pink then spotted or stained purple-red to vinaceous; and a dry stem that is white in its upper part and colored or stained like the cap in its lower part. |D. Miller says (pers. comm.), "So far, DNA from BC, WA, and twice from OR all match each other and is probably our common species, but it does not match DNA from Europe, where it was described, so our species needs a new name. We appear to also have a second undescribed species, found once in OR (>10% difference in ITS). It definitely spotted purple on the gills."

Cap:
(3)6-12(20)cm across, convex becoming broadly convex or flat, margin incurved at first; whitish to pink with darker (vinaceous red to purple-brown) splashes, streaks, and/or fibrils, margin usually paler; slightly viscid when wet but otherwise dry, (Arora), (3)6-12(15)cm across, convex becoming flat, margin remaining decurved [downcurved] till late maturity; 'color of fibrillose layer "neutral red," "mineral red," or "deep livid brown" on the disc, paler and near "rhodonite pink" on the margin, flesh beneath the fibrils whitish, often splashed and streaked purplish red'; viscid, nearly dry when old, pellicle [cap skin] separable to disc, appressed-fibrillose, "margin cottony fibrillose, sometimes becoming appressed-scaly", (Hesler), 6-15cm across, convex, flat when old, margin remaining incurved until late maturity; "with red to purplish red fibrils over white ground color, often appears streaked with red pigment"; viscid, appressed-fibrillose, (Bessette(1))

Flesh:
thick, firm; white, (Arora), thick on disc, thin at margin, firm; white, (Hesler), thick, firm; white in cap and stem, (Bessette(1)), streaked pink at maturity, turning pink or purplish at insect holes, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)

Gills:
adnate to decurrent, "fairly close, soft, slightly waxy"; "white at first but soon flushed pink, then spotted or stained purple-red to vinaceous", (Arora), adnate to decurrent, close to subdistant, narrow; ''white then "shell pink" to purplish red, or spotted purplish red''; edges even, (Hesler), adnate at first to short-decurrent when old, subdistant, narrow to medium broad when old, with irregular tier of short subgills; white at first, often tinted pink or spotted red to purplish red when old, (Bessette(1))

Stem:
(3)5-12(15)cm x 1-2.5cm, equal or narrowing downward, solid, firm; colored or stained more or less like cap; not viscid, (Arora), 3-10cm x 1-2.4cm, solid, narrowing in lower part; more or less cap-colored in lower part and often spotted with dark purplish red; dry, silky at top, (Hesler), 3-10cm x 1-2.4cm, equal or narrowing just at base; cap-colored: streaked with red and purplish red fibrils over a white ground color; dry, partial veil remaining as fragile, superior fibrillose zone, (Bessette(1))

Veil:
white, fibrillose, "forming a slight superior or apical ring or hairy zone" on stem, or disappearing entirely: the veil is often evident only in young unexpanded specimens, (Arora), partial veil white, fibrillose, leaving an apical fugacious [fleeting] ring that becomes purplish red, (Hesler), partial veil remaining as fragile fibrillose zone, (Bessette(1))

Odor:
mild (Arora, Hesler, Bessette(1)), mild: anise, radish or none, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)

Taste:
mild or bitter (Arora), mild (Hesler), pleasant (Bessette(1))

Microscopic spores:
spores 5.5-8 x 3-4.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 5.5-7(8) x 3-4.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2-spored and 4-spored, 40-56 x (5)6-8 microns, sterigmata long; gill tissue divergent; clamp connections on hyphae of cap cuticle, (Hesler), spores thin-walled, pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia absent (Bessette(1))

Spore deposit:
white (Arora)

Notes:
Hesler(1) examined collections for WA, OR, ID, CA, CO, ME, NM, and TN, and they note distribution in Europe. There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

yes, but some variants too bitter to be palatable (Arora), edible and pleasant (Bessette(1))