About this fungus
Greasy Green Brittlegill is a fungus in the Russulaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A firm woodland brittlegill with a smooth green, olive, brownish or ochre cap, crowded pale gills and a stout white stem. The cap begins rounded, then flattens and often develops a shallow central depression.
What to check
First confirm the brittle Russula structure: the stem snaps rather than bending into fibres, and the gills are fragile. Greasy Green Brittlegill has white to pale cream gills that are often forked or joined close to the stem, a white spore print and no ring or volva. An iron-salt test on the stem flesh gives an orange to salmon reaction. Accurate species identification may still require a detailed key or microscopy.
Variation
The cap can be green, yellow-green, olive, brown or ochre, sometimes with several tones on one cap. Its surface is smoother than that of Greencracked Brittlegill and may feel slightly greasy in damp weather. Colour is too variable to use by itself.
Lookalikes
Green forms of Charcoal Burner, Russula cyanoxantha, have unusually flexible rather than brittle gills and little or a greenish iron-salt reaction. Greencracked Brittlegill, Russula virescens, develops a conspicuously cracked cap surface. Green Brittlegill, Russula aeruginea, is often associated with birch. A Death Cap has fibrous flesh and usually a ring and basal volva, unlike the brittle, ringless and volva-less Russula structure, but the full stem base should always be checked.
Habitat and range
An ectomycorrhizal woodland species associated with broadleaved trees, fruiting on the ground mainly from summer into early autumn.
Food safety
Edible.
Use this profile to learn what to examine and compare, not as proof that a mushroom is safe to eat. Check the whole specimen and every important lookalike before reaching an identification.
Species to compare
Similar mushrooms to compare against: