page_title: Russula xerampelina
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Russula xerampelina / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: This image is the work of photographer Zonda Grattus, aka User:luridiformis. He is the sole owner and copyright holder of this photograph, and holds the original 35mm slide. He agrees to publish it under the Own Work, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
context_page_description: Russula xerampelina, also commonly known as the crab brittlegill or the shrimp mushroom, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the brittlegill genus Russula. Two subspecies are recognised. The fruiting bodies appear in coniferous woodlands in autumn in northern Europe and North America. Their caps are coloured various shades of wine-red, purple to green. Mild tasting and edible, it is one of the most highly regarded brittlegills for the table. It is also notable for smelling of shellfish or crab when fresh.
context_section_description: Russula xerampelina has a characteristic odour of boiled crustacean. The cap is 6–12 cm (2.5–4.5 in) wide, domed, flat, or with a slightly depressed centre, and sticky. The colour is variable, most commonly purple to wine-red, or greenish, and darker towards the centre of the cap. There are fine grooves up to a centimetre long running perpendicular to the margin. The gills have a mild to rather bitter taste, narrowly spaced, and turn creamy-yellow on ageing specimens. The spore print is creamy-yellow to ochre. The oval spores measure 8.8–9.9 by 6.7–7.8 µm and are covered with 1 µm spines, The stipe 4–8 cm (1.5–3 in) long, 1.5–3 cm (0.59–1.18 in) wide, is cylindrical, white or sometimes with a reddish blush, turning ochre or brownish with age.
  This Russula has been divided into several similar species by some mycologists. However, they all have the singular dark green colour reaction to iron salts (iron(II) sulfate) when applied to the flesh, and all smell of shellfish. This aroma is quite distinct, and becomes stronger with age.
  More reddish-capped forms could be confused with the sickener (Russula emetica), although the latter always has a white stipe and gills; greener-capped species may resemble the also edible Russula aeruginea.
caption: Another colour variation of R. xerampelina
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