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.

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)

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

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Russula pelargonia Niolle