Russula fellea - Geranium Brittlegill

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Russulales

Many other brittlegills occur sometimes in yellow forms, but the distinctive odour of the Geranium Brittlegill makes it one of the few that can be identified with a high degree of certainty in the field. (The claimed scent of 'geraniums' is not universally accepted.)

Years can go by without this fungus fruiting in any significant numbers, and then we get a season like 2010 when the woods (in West Wales in particular) were spattered with enormous numbers of these attractive little brittlegills.

Identification Guide

	Cap Usually honey yellow but sometimes tawny-buff or orange towards the cap centre; smooth; convex, soon developing a central depression; margin not lined or with only very short lines; cuticle peels 1/3 from margin; 4 to 9cm across.
	Gills Paler than cap, turning buff with age; moderately crowded; adnate.
	Stem Colour as cap or somewhat paler; sometimes slightly clavate; 4 to 6cm long, 1 to 2cm dia.
Spore print	Pale pinkish cream.
Odour/taste	This honey-coloured brittlegill smells like stewed apples (although some insist that the scent is more reminiscent of geraniums – hence the common name). The taste is very hot and bitter (inedible).
Habitat	This mushroom is particularly common in Beech woodland in Britain and Ireland but, particularly on mainland Europe, it is also found in spruce plantations on acid soil.
Season	August to October.
Occurrence	Common and widespread.
Similar species	Russula ochroleuca, the Ochre Brittlegill, has much whiter gills and stem and lacks a distinctive odour.