Species details
Gilded brittlegill
Russula aurea
Extra caution required
Photo: Adrien BENOIT à la GUILLAUME · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo source · License
_01.jpg){kind=link}
Description
A yellow, orange to red russula with yellow gills and golden tones.
Identification features
The stem is white to yellowish and flesh mild; yellow gills are an important feature.
Identification checklist
Check the entire fruitbody for identification. A yellow, orange to red russula with yellow gills and golden tones. The stem is white to yellowish and flesh mild; yellow gills are an important feature. Typical habitat: Deciduous and mixed woodland, often with beech and oak on calcareous soil.
Detailed features
- Cap
- 4–10 cm, brick-red, orange-red or yellow, often with yellow patches; initially hemispherical, later flattened and slightly depressed.
- Hymenophore
- Gills start white, becoming ochre to yellowish; the edges characteristically turn golden yellow.
- Stem
- 3–8 × 1–2 cm, whitish to yellowish, solid and firm, sometimes brown-spotted.
- Flesh
- White, yellowish beneath the cap skin, firm and brittle.
- Smell
- Pleasant.
- Spore print
- Pale yellow.
Size
- Cap diameter
- 4–10 cm
- Stem height
- 3–8 cm
- Stem diameter
- 1–2 cm
Habitat
Deciduous and mixed woodland, often with beech and oak on calcareous soil.
Fruiting period
June, July, August, September, October
Ecology
- Trophic mode
- Mycorrhizal
- Substrate
- Forest soil
- Notes
- A mycorrhizal species of mixed woodland with deciduous and coniferous trees; not among the commonest russulas.
How to separate similar species
Compare especially with these similar species: Russula emetica, Russula rosea, Russula lutea. Check the combination of cap shape and colour, spore-bearing surface, stem, flesh changes and habitat. A single feature or photograph is not enough; if the key characters do not match the description, do not treat the identification as confirmed.
Similar species
- Sickener (Russula emetica) DANGEROUS
The sickener has white gills and an acrid character; it lacks golden-yellow gill edges.
- Rosy brittlegill (Russula rosea)
Usually lacks the characteristic golden gill edges and is more uniformly reddish.