Pirate brittlegill or Charcoal burner

The cap is 3–8 cm across, occasionally up to 10 cm. It starts convex, soon flattens and finally becomes depressed in the centre.

The colour is violet, dark purple, lilac or wine-red, sometimes greyish pink. The centre is darker at first but soon fades to dirty pink, olive or yellowish, often with bright yellow spots. A form with an entirely yellow cap has also been described.

In wet weather the skin is slightly greasy, but it dries quickly from the margin and then looks matt and velvety, as if dusted. The skin peels easily, about a third of the way to the centre.

The cap is 5-15 cm across, hemispherical when young, becoming flattened with a slightly depressed centre with age. The cap skin is smooth, slimy in wet weather and dry and matte in dry weather, and peels 2/3 of the way to the centre. The colour is very variable: violet-blue, green-grey, olive-violet, or brownish violet with yellow patches. In a single cluster you'll often see caps in different shades. The colour is deeper in the centre and paler toward the margin, which has fine radial grooves.

The gills are cream or pale yellow at first and a rich ochre-yellow when mature. They are fairly crowded, becoming more distant with age, attached to the stem and joined by cross veins near the base.

The spore print is pale yellow to ochre. A white print points to a different russula, such as the charcoal burner or the purple brittlegill.

The gills are adnate or free, partly forked near the stem and moderately crowded. UNIQUE FEATURE: the gills are flexible and springy and don't break when pressed; run your finger over them and they bend and spring back (in every other brittlegill they are brittle and crumbly). They are pure white to creamy white. The spore print is white.

The stem is 3–8 cm tall and 1–2 cm thick, cylindrical or slightly club-shaped. It is pure white, rarely pinkish, and yellowish in wet weather.

Young stems are firm; old ones become chambered or hollow, especially at the base. There is no ring and no volva.

The stem is 5-10 cm tall and 1.5-3 cm thick, firm, fleshy and cylindrical, with a small cavity in old mushrooms. It's white to cream, sometimes with a faint violet tinge toward the base, and smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring, no volva.

The flesh is white, yellowing with age and lilac just under the cap skin. It is brittle, as in most russulas, and does not change colour when broken. Field guides describe the taste as mild and sweetish.

The flesh is firm, fleshy and pure white and doesn't change colour when cut, a characteristic of the species. The smell is faint and pleasant, fruity and mushroomy; the taste is mild, sweetish and nutty, with no bitterness or acridity.

The key feature of the species: the base of the stem smells of iodoform, an old-fashioned antiseptic. The smell stays at the bottom of the stem and is not always obvious, so it is worth checking several specimens. The cap and gills have no particular smell.

Faint, pleasant, fruity and mushroomy, neutral.