Summary:
Russula mariae is distinguished by a dry, velvety cap usually with a bloom, the cap colors reddish to purple, a mild taste and a creamy spore print. Gills are white becoming yellowish when old, the stem white or tinged cap color, and the taste mild or slightly and slowly peppery. We do not yet have DNA confirmation of this species in the Pacific Northwest. Some divide into it into 2 species, Russula mariae with a red cap and Russula alachuana with a lilac-purple cap. It is not to be confused with Russula mairei.

Gills:
adnate, rather close, a few forking at base; white becoming yellowish when old, (Peck), "adnate to subdecurrent, close to subdistant", with rare subgills, gills up to 0.5cm broad at midradius, interveined, often forking at various levels; white when young, soon pale yellow, "cartridge buff", "apricot buff", to "ochraceous-buff" when old, edges occasionally pink to lilac; edges even to fimbriate [fringed], (Bills), typically adnate to adnexed, close; white becoming creamy or pale yellowish, (Arora)

Stem:
equal, solid or slightly spongy within; colored like or a little paler than the cap, usually white at each end, rarely entirely white, (Peck), 1-5.6cm x 0.5-2cm at midpoint, narrowing toward base or equal, often curved, spongy when young, sometimes hollow when old; white to pale yellow, partly or entirely pink, grayish pink, or purple; dry, dull, "partly or entirely scurfy to minutely pruinose or granular, sometimes with minute longitudinal fibrils", (Bills), 2.5-7.5cm x 1-2.5cm, equal or narrowing downward, firm, rigid; "white or tinged reddish to purple", (Arora)

Odor:
mild, oily, of Juniperus wood or of Lactarius volemus (Fr.) Fr., (Bills)

Taste:
mild or slightly and tardily peppery (Peck), mild to slightly peppery or oily (Bills), mild or slightly peppery, (Arora)

Microscopic spores:
spores round, 0.0003 of an inch in diam, (Peck), spores 7.5-9.5 x 6.5-8 microns, warts 0.6-1.0 microns high; epicutis "composed of a turf of septate-constricted hyphae, with one or more basal cells, apices tapering or filiform", no pileocystidia, (Hesler), spores 6.5-8.5(9.5) x 5.5-7.5(8) microns, round, nearly round to broadly obovate, ornamentation amyloid, up to 1.2 microns high consisting of long, irregular crests and ridges, flattened spines and a few conic verrucae [warts], forming a partial to complete reticulum, hilar appendix inamyloid, conspicuous; basidia 4-spored, 30-55 x 9-13 microns, clavate, colorless to pale yellow in KOH; pleurocystidia scattered to abundant 55-105 x 10-20 microns, projecting 5-60 microns beyond basidia, arising from hymenium, ventricose-rostrate, subulate to cylindric, upper half often collapsing when revived, colorless to pale yellow in KOH, cheilocystidia abundant, 30-75 x 6-12 microns, aculeate, lanceolate to subulate, colorless in KOH; cap cuticle 200-260 microns thick, lacking gelatinous material, colorless to pink or violet in KOH, epicutis 150-240 microns thick, "a trichodermium composed of tangled, ascending hyphae that give rise to short chains of inflated cells" that terminate in fascicles or a turf of dermatocystidia 30-100 x 5-12 microns, "aciculate, lanceolate, subulate to obclavate, arising from inflated basal cells"; clamp connections absent in all tissues, (Bills), spores 7-10 x 6-8 microns, elliptic to nearly round, amyloid warts and ridges, (Arora)

Spore deposit:
pale yellow (Peck), pale yellow (Romagnesi II b-c), (Bills), creamy yellow (Arora)

Notes:
Arora reported it from CA. There is a collection at the University of British Columbia from BC by O. Ceska. It was reported from British Columbia (Hardy 1946 in The Victoria Naturalist), but this report needs confirmation. There are collections from OR at Oregon State University. The University of Washington has one collection each from WA and VT. The New York Botanical Garden has two collections from WA. Specimens from California and Washington identified by Singer(8) as Russula alachuana are not this species according to Bills. Bills examined collections from QC, AL, FL, MA, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY (type), PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, and VT.

EDIBILITY

edible but not choice (Arora)