Unidentified fungi - Braemar woodland - Aberdeenshire

[Cantabrigian]

I know it's not a great photo and the specimen's not in great condition, but can anyone identify this?

It was on the ground in woodland just above Braemar, November 2011. It's about 10 cm across at its widest.

Thanks for any help!

John

[waxcap]

Hi John,

It could be a Russula sp. but then it could be a lot of other things. There's only a small area of colour left on the cap and there's no stem! I does look a bit like a Russula from what is left of it.

Dave

[flaxton]

I would go with a Russual sp.

Mal

[Cantabrigian]

Thanks Dave and Mal.

I realise I'd failed to record most of what I now gather make mushrooms species distinctive: gill colour, spore colour, stem etc. It was the concavity and colour of the cup which struck me at the time, but I realise now they don't distinguish it that much...

By the way, what is "sp." short for in "Russula sp"?

John

[waxcap]

Hi john

sp. is short for species. If you know the genus but not the species you put sp. after the genus. Russula is the genus. There are something like 750 species of Russula worldwide and something like 160 in Europe. Your Russula could be narrowed down by the cap colour, gill colour and it's location to one of probably a dozen or so species - maybe less. If we could see the whole cap, gills and stem and had other information like smell (sometimes taste) and information about the surrounding area including which trees were close by - maybe someone could identify it to species for you. Russulas can be quite hard to identify just by sight.

Dave

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by waxcap

Hi john

sp. is short for species. If you know the genus but not the species you put sp. after the genus. Russula is the genus. There are something like 750 species of Russula worldwide and something like 160 in Europe. Your Russula could be narrowed down by the cap colour, gill colour and it's location to one of probably a dozen or so species - maybe less. If we could see the whole cap, gills and stem and had other information like smell (sometimes taste) and information about the surrounding area including which trees were close by - maybe someone could identify it to species for you. Russulas can be quite hard to identify just by sight.

Dave

In other words, the are a lot of Russula spp.

Neil.

EDIT: In case that causes confusion, I will phrase it this way.
What is shown in the photo is a Russula sp. but there are a lot of Russula spp. to choose from.

Note, we italicise the genus Russula, but leave sp. or spp. in lower case (Oh, and don't forget that dot !) Chris will correct me if I'm wrong.

[waxcap]

Many thanks for the elucidation Neil

I was never very good at explaining things.

Dave

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Note, we italicise the genus Russula, but leave sp. or spp. in lower case (Oh, and don't forget that dot !) Chris will correct me if I'm wrong.

No matter what is italicised, what letters are capitalised and how many dots you have there are still quite a few on this forum that will say that it is still a bl....y Russula

Mal

[waxcap]

Bravo! Mal.

Not wanting to stir thing up any more - and my question arises from true ignorance but:- Shouldn't Russula only be italicised when used in a name i.e. Russula emetica and not when used as a noun in a sentence?

And another thing - when you quote another post it's all italicised anyway.

Originally Posted by fairplay

Note, we italicise the genus Russula, but leave sp. or spp. in lower case (Oh, and don't forget that dot !) Chris will correct me if I'm wrong

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Note, we italicise the genus Russula, but leave sp. or spp. in lower case (Oh, and don't forget that dot !) Chris will correct me if I'm wrong.

it's a Russula . . . . I don't care what you do with it

Chris