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Species Information
Summary: Clade Brevipes. Russula cascadensis is characterized by 1) small to medium size, 2) a white to cinnamon buff, dry cap with an inseparable cap skin, 3) hard, compact flesh that discolors slowly brownish where injured, 4) a short white stem, 5) a very peppery taste, and 6) a pale cream-yellow spore deposit.
Russula cascadensis is found in BC (Bandoni, Schalkwijk-Barendsen). Shaffer examined collections from WA, OR, ID, and MI. It is included by Thiers(3) for CA.
Cap: 4-9cm across, white, soon staining cinnamon-buff where injured or in contact with debris, or pale leather-brown overall when old; unpolished, margin incurved, even, cuticle inseparable (not peeling), (Woo), 4-9cm across, when young broadly depressed on disc and the margin arched and incurved, expanding to broadly funnel-shaped; "white when fresh, but soon staining cinnamon-buff where injured or in contact with debris", frequently pale alutaceous overall when old; dry, matted fibrillose under a lens, (Shaffer), up to 22cm across, convex, developing into funnel; off-white, yellowish discoloration; earth-encrusted, smooth, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Flesh: hard; white, discoloring slowly when broken, (Woo), thick, firm, brittle; white, discoloring slowly when broken, (Shaffer), coarse; white, not discoloring, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), Cap trama about 0.4-0.5cm deep at half-radius, not bruising when cut but developing light brownish discolorations around insect larval channels, eventually the whole cap aging this color, (Roberts, C.(2))
Gills: close to crowded, many tiers of subgills, gills narrow; white, discoloring when old like cap, (Woo), adnate to subdecurrent, close to crowded, many tiers of subgills, gills often forking near stem; white at first becoming "pale olive buff" [Ridgway(1) color], discoloring when injured sordid yellow to cinnamon-buff, (Shaffer), decurrent, distant, intermediates, interveined, often forking; white, discoloring to ocher, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Stem: short; white, not discoloring; unpolished, (Woo), 3-4cm x 2-2.5cm, short, solid; "white, not staining readily where bruised"; unpolished, (Shaffer), up to 5cm long and 5cm wide, equal, thick, coarse; white, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Odor: slight or none (Shaffer), faint, but unpleasant when drying, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Microscopic spores: spores 6.7-8.2 x 4.8-6.7 microns, ornamentation Patterson-Woo type B-2, C-2, (Woo), spores 6.7-8.2 x 4.8-6.7 microns excluding ornamentation, usually elliptic, occasionally obovate, ornamentation 0.2-0.7 microns high, of amyloid warts that may be isolated but are more often connected by fine to heavy lines forming a broken to nearly complete reticulum; basidia 4-spored, 40-52 x 8.0-10.6 microns, clavate; pleuropseudocystidia abundant, 47-86 x 5.3-8.0 microns, arising in subhymenium or trama, projecting not at all or to 17 microns beyond basidioles, "irregularly cylindric to narrowly clavate or fusiform", "at times subcapitate or submoniliform near apex, otherwise rounded, subacute, or attenuate apically", sometimes flexuous [wavy], "at least partially filled with refractive contents or more or less homogeneously glassy", cheilopseudocystidia common, 33-53 x 5.3-8.0 microns, like pleuropseudocystidia, (Shaffer), spores 6.5-8.2 x 5.5-6.5 microns, nearly round, sometimes suboval or subelliptic, ornamentation of isolated warts often connected by heavy lines forming a partial to nearly complete reticulum, warts 0.6-1.0 microns high; hymenial cystidia often abundant, 48-87 x 5-9 microns, "conspicuous, either projecting well beyond the hymenium or partially or deeply embedded, fusoid to cylindric, often with an elongated, tapered, sometimes strangulated terminal appendage"; cap cuticle (92)140-230 microns thick, epicutis a layer of tangled to interwoven hyphae usually with somewhat erect tips, pileocystidia absent, (Thiers)
Spore deposit: pale cream-yellow, Crawshay C, (Woo), pale cream-yellow ("cartridge buff" Ridgway(1)), (Shaffer), white, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Habitat / Range
conifers (Woo), fall, winter
Similar Species
Russula brevipes has a slowly developing peppery taste, and spores are larger with slightly stronger ornamentation, (Thiers). R. brevipes var. brevipes has a cap 8-20cm across and taste is mild to slightly peppery whereas R. cascadensis has a cap 4-9cm across and taste is intensely peppery, (Woo). [Schalkwijk-Barendsen gives the size for R. cascadensis up to 22cm, but she gives taste as "slowly acrid" leaving one to wonder whether this may not refer to R. brevipes.] The spore deposit of most R. brevipes is paler and may be almost white, (Roberts, C.(2)). Var. acrior of R. brevipes may have a more intensely peppery taste than the type variety, thus being closer to R. cascadensis, but has a greenish band around stem and greenish gills. See also SIMILAR section of Russula cremoricolor.
