Summary:
The presence of this species in the Pacific Northwest requires confirmation. Russula brunneoviolacea is characterized by small size, a purple and brown dry cap with a separable cap skin, mild taste, a white stem with pinkish flushes that bruises or ages yellow, a preference for hardwoods especially oak, and a yellow spore deposit. A group of Russulas in which the flesh and sometimes stem have been described by at least some authors as turning yellowish is here called the Russula puellaris group. The group includes R. versicolor, R. sapinea, R. puellaris, R. abietina, R. blackfordiae, and R. brunneoviolacea. Some members of this list may be close together genetically, but some of them are poorly understood, making this uncertain. Other possibilities are that some of the species in this list may be in the R. zelleri group or in the R. xerampelina group.

Cap:
3-7cm across, "livid violet, livid purple or dark purple red, sometimes browner or paler in center, or with yellowish patches"; margin striate when old, cuticle separable, (Woo), 5-8cm across, at first spherical, fragile when expanded; at first violet-black, later violet or violet-brown, often very dark in center, occasionally with small patches of yellow or rusty color, exceptionally the whole surface mottled with pale yellow and sordid violet; margin finally striate, (Crawshay), 6-9cm across, convex to flat; livid violet to vinaceous brown, olive brown to occasionally even entirely greenish; dry, smooth, pigment of cap skin usually distinctly speckled, patchy, when viewed through lens (10x), peels two-thirds, (Phillips), up to 8cm across, dark vinaceous purple, finely dotted russet brown (through lens), margin slightly viscid or matte, (Courtecuisse), 6.5-8.5cm across, convex to flat with umbilicate-depressed disc; dark grayish purple to dark grayish red and sometimes with grayish red to grayish reddish brown areas centrally, dark to light grayish red or light reddish brown marginally; slightly viscid to dry, dull, minutely velvety, easily separable 2/3 of the cap radius, striate 0.2-0.4cm from edge inward, "variant 2" differs in being light grayish yellowish brown to grayish yellowish brown or dark grayish yellow on disc, dark grayish purple outward and then grayish purple to dark grayish red or light reddish brown marginally, (Shaffer), the color of the cap is "a mixture of brown and different shades of purple colors; it may also develop reddish to reddish brown shades and, at times, be predominantly any of these colors", (Thiers)

Flesh:
brittle; white, (Woo), white, surface beneath cuticle white or of a faint sulphur-yellow tint, (Crawshay), brittle; white, (Phillips), slightly yellowing where damaged (Courtecuisse), 0.4-0.55cm thick at mid-radius, soft-brittle; tinged cap color just below surface, "otherwise off-white, staining pale orange yellow to grayish yellow in places when cut", (Shaffer)

Gills:
cream (Woo), free; "white, finally cream faintly yellow-tinted", (Crawshay), subdistant; cream, (Phillips), pale cream (Courtecuisse), adnexed, at times almost free, subdistant, equal, or unequal with subgills rare and approaching stem closely, 0.5-0.7cm broad, somewhat rounded near cap margin, fragile-brittle, occasionally forked at or near stem, interveined; "pale yellow, at times spotted-stained yellowish brown, but unchanging where bruised"; entire, (Shaffer)

Stem:
often long; white, staining pale-yellow where rubbed, (Woo), "often long, and inclined to curve beneath the leaves on the ground", fragile, at first firm, finally soft; "white, staining pale sulphur-yellow where rubbed", (Crawshay), 3.5-6cm x 1-1.5cm, "equal; white staining slightly yellowish brown at base", (Phillips), up to 6cm x 1.5cm, spindle-shaped, fragile, more or less unchanging (Courtecuisse), 3.5-5.5cm x 1.3-1.5cm, flared at top, otherwise more or less equal or widening to base; stuffed; yellowish white, staining slightly grayish yellow when bruised and when old, "sometimes spotted-stained yellowish brown basally"; dry, dull, bald, longitudinally wrinkled, (Shaffer)

Odor:
none (Woo, Crawshay), pleasant (Phillips), with a slight fruity odor (Shaffer)

Taste:
mild (Woo, Crawshay, Phillips), none (Shaffer)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7-9 x 6-7.5 microns, ornamentation Patterson-Woo type B-3, (Woo), spores average 9.5 x 8.5 microns, very conspicuous protuberances that are rather above the usual size, in a certain number of spores the protuberances are unconnected, but in the majority, they are connected by extremely thin lines, which form a reticulum over a large part of the surface, many of the spores possess an unusually large apiculus, (Crawshay), spores 6-8 x 5.5-6.8 microns, warts up to 0.8 microns, "with many fine connectives forming partial to complete reticulum", (Phillips), 7-9 x 6-7.5 microns, warts or spines variable in height from 1 to 2 1/4 microns, conical to long and narrow, sometimes curved, connectives few and thin, (Rayner), 6.3-8.1 x 5.7-6.8 microns, nearly round to broadly elliptic or broadly obovate, ornamentation cylindric to conic warts, spines, and short ridges, all up to 0.3-0.8(1.2) microns high, "and connectives, the warts and spines occasionally catenulate, forming a partial or complete reticulum"; "variant 2" differs, having spores 6.1-8.1 x 5.1-6.9 microns, short ridges and convex to cylindric, clavate, or conic warts and spines up to 0.3-1.2 microns high and sometimes also a few connectives, only rarely forming a partial reticulum, "Both variants differ in spore ornamentation from the typical European variant of R. brunneoviolacea [italicized] whose spores, according to Romagnesi (1), often have longer, more slender, more acute spines with few connectives"; basidia 4-spored, 31-42 x 7.9-10.2 microns, clavate; hymenial pseudocystidia common, 45-60 x 2.8-6.8 microns, arising in subhymenium, projecting up to 18 microns beyond basidioles, "subcylindric, fusiform, fusoid-clavate, or rarely fusoid-ventricose", "sometimes capitate or short-appendiculate, otherwise rounded apically", (Shaffer), spores of California material are often partially reticulate, (Thiers), spores 7.4-8.8 (9.8) x 6.1-7.1 (8.6) microns, (Roberts, C.(2))

Spore deposit:
yellow, Crawshay C-E, (Woo), pale orange-yellow, Crawshay C-E, (Phillips), Crawshay C-E (Rayner), pale orange yellow, between Romagnesi IIb and IIc, (Shaffer)

Notes:
It is not common, according to Shaffer, being reported from North America (from MD) only once before his 1970 MI records. But it is included in Pacific Northwest key of Woo(1), and reported by Grund from WA as a provisional new variety roseolipes. Thiers gives R. brunneoviolacea for CA. C. Roberts deposited a collection for BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre and another at UBC, and there are a number of UBC collections from BC by Oluna Ceska.

EDIBILITY

yes (Phillips)