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Pinkmottle woodwax

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Hygrophorus russula, the pinkmottle woodwax, is a firm mycorrhizal mushroom of broadleaf woods in southern Europe and Guatemala. It is used cooked or preserved, and field guides differ on its quality.

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Two whole pinkmottle woodwax mushrooms and two lengthwise halves display mottled pink-red caps, pale gills and white flesh against a warm ivory background.

Overview

The pinkmottle woodwax is a waxcap-type mushroom of the genus Hygrophorus. It grows with broadleaf trees, especially oak, and Its firm flesh has led to its use as a food in southern Europe, and it is also recorded as a market food in Guatemala. In some places it is known by a regional name or as the Russula-like waxcap, which the catalogue keeps alongside the scientific name.

The record is a market and food-use record, not a verdict on the species' quality. Field guides differ on how good it is, and the sources read for this page do not agree on whether it needs cooking first.

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Taxonomy and names

The species is Hygrophorus russula. The catalogue lists the common names pinkmottle woodwax and Russula-like waxcap, the second name pointing to a resemblance to Russula species. Field guides note that its flesh is less brittle than a russula's. The catalogue records the name as a research label and has not validated it against a current accepted-name list.

Closely related species should be kept apart from it. The catalogue asks that regional names and closely related species are retained in the record rather than merged into one entry.

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Ecology and season

The catalogue records the ecology as broadleaf-associated, ectomycorrhizal, in forest, and as wild. Field accounts place it with oak and other broadleaf trees, and they give a season from late summer to late autumn, roughly August to November.

Accounts also differ on how common it is. One guide describes it as very rare, and another says it is more common in eastern North America than in the west. The Guatemalan record shows that it is known outside Europe, and the sources do not give a range within either region.

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Food use

The catalogue describes the species as a firm mushroom used cooked or preserved. The market record is from Southern Europe and Guatemala.

One field guide describes its flavour as mild and says it is often mixed with stronger mushrooms. It advises boiling the mushrooms for about ten minutes before eating. Other sources say it is edible by some but not by others, so the guidance is not uniform.

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Look-alikes and identification

Hygrophorus purpurascens is a similar species with a veil and a conifer habitat, and it is also described as edible but of poor quality. The two are distinguished by habitat and by the veil.

The catalogue flags that regional names and closely related species should be kept in the record. No identification from a photograph should be treated as settled, and a specialist should confirm the species before any use.

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Safety

The catalogue's caution is that this is a food and market record under specialist evidence. Regional names and closely related species should be retained, and the record does not establish a safety assessment for the species.

Sources that describe the species as edible disagree with sources that list it as not edible, and the advice to boil it first is one guide's advice, not a tested method. Foragers should confirm identification with an expert before eating any wild mushroom.

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Places

Southern Europe

Documented use · Region evidence

Regional market record; the catalogue does not pin a country or locality.

See Southern Europeon the mapLocation source 1 → · Location source 2 →

Guatemala

Documented use · Country evidence

Country-level food-use record from the catalogue.

See Guatemalaon the mapLocation source 1 →

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