Russula integra or Bloody brittlegill

The cap is 6-15 cm across, hemispherical when young, later flat and spread out with a slightly depressed centre. The skin is smooth, slimy in wet weather and dry and matte in dry weather, and it peels easily over 2/3 of the cap toward the centre. The colour is dark purple, chestnut-purple or wine-red, darker in the centre and paler at the margin. Mature caps have fine radial grooves at the margin, like coarse ribbing.

The cap is 4–10 cm across. Young caps are domed, then convex, later flat, sometimes with a shallow dip in the centre or saucer-shaped.

The colour is blood red, wine red or purplish red. As it ages the cap fades unevenly, with pink, cream or almost white patches. It is matt when dry and sticky with a silky sheen after rain. The skin holds tight and only peels as a narrow strip at the edge. That's a useful clue: on the sickener you can peel the skin almost to the centre.

The gills are attached or free, moderately spaced, fleshy and brittle. They're whitish when young, turning ochre-cream to yellowish as the yellow-ochre spores ripen. The yellow-ochre spore print is diagnostic: it sets this species apart from webcaps, whose print is rusty brown.

The gills are fairly crowded, narrow and brittle, often forked near the stem. They are attached to the stem or run slightly down it, which few red brittlegills do. They start white or cream and turn straw-coloured or pale ochre.

The spore print is cream to pale ochre. A pure white print points to the sickener; a deep ochre one to the hintapink or Russula integra.

The stem is 4-8 cm tall and 1.5-3 cm thick, firm, fleshy and cylindrical, becoming hollow in old mushrooms. It's white to creamy white, faintly yellowish with age and browning toward the base. The surface is smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring.

The stem is 3–7 cm tall and 1–3 cm thick, cylindrical and firm, sometimes hollow in old specimens. There is no ring and no volva.

The key feature of the species is the stem colour: a pink, wine-red or red flush, strongest towards the base, with fine lengthwise streaks. Young stems can still be white, and old ones turn greyish pink with a yellowish base. A pink stem alone doesn't prove the species, since the hintapink, the rosy brittlegill and the crab brittlegill can have one too.

The flesh is firm, brittle and white, and slowly turns yellow where cut (a reaction typical of the genus Russula). The smell is pleasantly mushroomy, with a fruity note in mature mushrooms; the taste is mild, sweetish and nutty, with no bitterness or acridity, which is a diagnostic feature.

The flesh is white and firm, reddish under the cap skin, sometimes yellowish at the stem base, and yellows a little with age. It barely changes colour when broken and has no milk. Field guides describe the taste as hot, peppery and often bitter, milder in the stem. There's no need to taste mushrooms: the other features are enough to identify it.

Pleasantly fruity-mushroomy, with no sharp notes.

The smell is faint and fruity, sometimes hardly noticeable. It lacks the strong crab or herring smell of the crab brittlegill.