Key to Gilled Mushrooms Key

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Russulales Suborder

Flesh without fibers, fracturing with the same sort of break as a piece of chalk

Spore and gill color limited to white, yellow, or ochre

Mycorrhizal: occuring only on the ground, and only when there are trees nearby

No ring or volva on stalk

All fleshy-stemmed mushrooms whose gills exude a latex when cut go here

Russula Genus

No latex

Cap usually brighter colored than Lactarius

Stalk usually white or tinged with color of cap

Yellow to Brownish Russula Subgenus

Cap entirely yellow or light brown