Summary:
Clade Russula crown. Features include 1) medium to large size, 2) cap that is most often brown (mixed or not with other colors) but sometimes entirely wine red, green, or purple, 3) cap surface that is viscid when wet with margin sometimes weakly striate, 4) pale cream to yellow gills, 5) stem widening toward the base and shorter than cap diameter, white or tinged with purple or red and sometimes staining brown, 6) mild odor, 7) mild taste except sometimes slightly peppery in gills, 8) association with Tsuga heterophylla, and 9) negative or tan FeSo4 reaction. DNA study indicates that the European Russula paludosa is a sister species (Hyde(2)). This species has been mistaken for Russula xerampelina (which has a FeSO4 reaction that is typically green with a drop on cap or stem flesh, and typically a fishy odor), and Russula vinosa (as Russula ''occidentalis'') in which flesh turns gray or black, often with an intervening reddish phase, when cut or bruised. Russula benwooii is often reported with a vinaceous-grey tint to the stem, but not quite like the greying group which discolors more over time (See D. Miller in Pictorial Key.) The description is derived from Hyde(2). This is a common species in the Pacific Northwest.

Gills:
adnate, normally spaced (about 1 gill per mm, presumably at margin) or sometimes wider, subgills often present; pale cream to yellow; occasionally forking near cap margin

Stem:
"mostly distinctly widening toward base, shorter than the cap diameter"; "white or partly to entirely tinged with purple or red, sometimes staining brown"

Taste:
mild, in gills sometimes slightly peppery

Microscopic spores:
spores (6.9)9.2-9.3(12) x (5)7.1-7.2(8.6) microns, broadly elliptic, "ornamentation subreticulate, composed of strongly amyloid, sometimes slightly curved, conical warts" (0.4)1.1(1.9) microns high, "with some interconnections", "suprahilar spot present as a strongly amyloid patch"; basidia 4-spored, (44)51-61(65) x (10.5)11.5-13.5(14.5) microns, clavate; hymenial cystidia 60-75(85) x 10-12 microns, broadly clavate; clamp connections absent

Spore deposit:
cream, in Woo collections about 60% Crawshay B-C, about 40% Crawshay D-E

Notes:
Russula benwooii is known from BC, WA, OR, and ID, (Hyde(2)).

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