Summary:
Clade Russula crown. Features include a dark violaceous, viscid cap that is pruinose at least on the disc, white unchanging flesh, white to pale yellow young gills, a white unchanging stem, a pale yellow spore deposit, and microscopic characters including reticulate spores. There is a Russula murrillii group of three closely related species in the Pacific Northwest, R. murrillii (believed to be Woo #70 among sequenced collections), Russula ''turci'' (something close to but not the same as Russula turci), and an undescribed species.

Cap:
up to 5cm across, "violaceous or darker in the center, or entirely darker"; "viscid drying floccose-pruinose, margin even", (Woo), up to 5cm across, convex, becoming flat then depressed, violaceous or darker in the center or entirely darker; evidently viscid when wet but soon dry, pruinose, becoming floccose-pruinose, margin even, (Burlingham), 5-10cm across, convex then depressed in center, with rounded margin; "deep livid brown" to "dark nigrosin violet" on the disc, lilac to "Chinese violet" or "deep brownish violet" on the marginal zone, sometimes olive blackish in center, in dried material greenish tones often becoming visible; slightly to distinctly viscid in wet weather, but drying out rapidly, smooth all over, pruinose at least on the disc, becoming bald on the margin, (Singer(8)), grayish dark pink to grayish violet, often dull brownish or with olive tints centrally, becoming more brownish-gray when old, the colors opaque and chalky, usually with a ring of minute blackish floccules around the central depression but not always within it, on occasion the blue pigment is much reduced and the color dull yellowish on the disc and pinkish towards the margins, buttons may be these colors initially; appearance of the cap surface is as if colored with chalk pastels and often lightly rubbed around the depression with charcoal, and is quite distinctive; viscid when wet, drying matte with a grayish bloom, and minutely concentrically areolate [cracked like dried mud] throughout, this character being more pronounced in the cap center, (Roberts, C.(2))

Flesh:
thin; white, (Woo, Burlingham), "not very elastic, firm and eventually fragile"; white, unchanging, (Singer(8))

Gills:
subdistant, broad; pale yellow becoming deeper yellow when old, (Woo), narrowly adnate, subdistant, equal, rather broad, rounded at outer end, rarely forking next to stem, interveined; ochroleucous when fresh, becoming deeper yellow, (Burlingham), narrowed-adnexed at stem, close to subdistant, rather broad, broadest near margin, a few forked near stem, equal, veined when old; white, then pale yellow, (Singer(8))

Stem:
chalk white, unchanging in drying, (Woo), "nearly equal, firm, stuffed, then tending to become hollow"; chalk white, unchanging in drying; bald, (Burlingham), 3-5cm x 0.8-3cm, subequal; white; mealy-opaque, becoming bald, (Singer(8)), "sometimes staining yellow when bruised" (Desjardin)

Odor:
mild (Thiers), not observed (Singer(8))

Taste:
mild (Singer(8)), not noted (Woo, Burlingham)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8.5-10 x 7-8.5 microns, Patterson-Woo type D-2, E-1, (Woo), 10 x 7 microns, echinulate [spiny], some round, but many elliptic, (Burlingham), spores 8.5-10 x 7-8.5 microns, elliptic, at times nearly round, warts 0.1-0.3(0.4) microns high, "more rarely the wall nearly smooth, with bands and fine lines forming a reticulum, a few warts isolated"; pleurocystidia 48-57 x 5-10 microns, "at times inconspicuous, irregularly subcylindric to clavate, appendiculate, empty or banded", cheilocystidia 42-55 x 4-6 microns, "irregularly clavate, appendiculate, somewhat banded, at times inconspicuous"; subhymenium of small cells; epicutis an ixotrichodermium of erect to semi-erect hyphae, some hyphae broad and septate, the terminal elements are pileocystidia; hypodermium poorly developed or none, (Hesler), spores 8.3-12 x 6.7-9 microns, ornamentation 0.3-0.7 microns; basidia 35-49 x 11-17 microns; cystidia with a triangular body at apex, the latter turning blue in SV, versiform; cap epicutis with very numerous primordial hyphae with rounded tips, 2.5-7.5 microns broad, dermatopseudocystidia none, (Singer(8)), spores (6.5)7.5-10 x 5.7-8.5 microns, nearly round to suboval to subelliptic, ornamentation "of isolated warts and heavy ridges with connectives forming a partial to complete reticulum", warts 0.2-0.5 microns high; cap cuticle up to 150 microns thick, epicutis "a layer of prostrate to tangled or interwoven hyphae with numerous free hyphal tips, pileocystidia usually present, often not strongly differentiated, sometimes apparently absent", (Thiers)

Spore deposit:
pale yellow, Crawshay D-E, (Woo), pale yellow (Burlingham), in the deepest prints between Crawshay D and E, (Singer(8))

Notes:
The type for R. murrillii was collected by W. Murrill at Corvallis OR in 1911. It has also been found in WA (Singer), and ID (Smith), and included for CA by Thiers. Roberts, C.(2) reported it from Vancouver Island in BC. Woo # 70 was collected from WA, OR, and ID.

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