Russula sesemoindu

Identity and research name

Russula sesemoindu is a research name carried by the catalogue. It has no common name in the catalogue and has not been checked against current taxonomic authorities. The Tshopo study classes it as ectomycorrhizal and supports the record with voucher MKH146.

Local name and food record

The Tshopo study records a Turumbu name for this species, Malebadja, in its table of local names. In its main table the species is listed as food, with a frequency of mention of 49 and an EMCS score of 0.3. Informants of the study's communities other than Kumu are recorded as eating it, according to the table's column layout.

As with other entries in this study, the record shows that local people name the fungus as food. It does not describe a preparation, a quantity, or a seasonal pattern.

Conflicting signals in the same study

The same study's discussion says that edible ectomycorrhizal Russula, Amanita, Lactarius and Lactifluus do not seem to be harvested and consumed by local populations in Tshopo province, which conflicts with the food classification in the main table. The record should be read with that conflict in view.

Identification and safety

The catalogue's review label is food, market and specialist evidence, with the caution that the record is an ethnomycological food-use report and not an independent toxicological assessment. The sources reviewed here give no identification features for this species and no toxicity data, so no edibility or identification verdict follows from this page.

How to recognise a brittlegill

A mushroom is a brittlegill, a Russula, only when several features line up. The cap is usually brightly coloured. The gills are brittle: they snap when you try to bend them, and the flesh breaks cleanly like chalk instead of tearing into fibres. The stem carries no ring and no cup or sack at its base, and there are no veil remnants on the cap. The gills are attached to the stem, and a spore print is white, cream or dark yellow.

Two checks separate Russula from its look-alikes. Break a gill or cut the flesh: a brittlegill gives no milky juice, while a milkcap (Lactarius or Lactifluus) weeps latex. Then look at the stem. A ring on the stem, a cup or a sack or bulb with torn remnants at its base, or flesh that tears in fibres points away from Russula and towards Amanita, a genus that includes the deadly death cap and many other poisonous species. A mushroom with a ring or a cup at the base is not a Russula, whatever colour its cap is.

Recognising the genus is much easier than naming the species. Cap colour varies widely inside one species, so experts rely on the colour of the spore print, the taste, colour changes in the flesh, how far the cap skin peels, chemical tests and the microscope. A collector who is sure of the genus but not of the species should treat the species as unidentified.

The taste test, and what it cannot tell you

Foragers have long sorted brittlegills by taste. Break off a small piece of cap flesh or gill, chew it for several seconds and spit it out without swallowing; the burn of an acrid species can take half a minute to build. Brittlegills that taste mild are the traditional edibles. Those that taste hot, peppery or acrid, and many bitter ones, are left alone because they irritate the stomach and bowel and can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.

The method works only inside the genus. Use it once the mushroom is positively a Russula, never to decide whether an unknown mushroom is safe: the deadliest mushrooms do not taste unpleasant, and a mild taste says nothing about an Amanita, a Cortinarius or any other family. Within Russula it is a screen for rejecting species, not proof of safety. Some mild species are poor eating, rare species are poorly documented, and a few brittlegills have been linked with poisoning. Cook what you eat, start with a small portion, and identify to species where you can. This record is not a field guide.

Open questions

Current taxonomic status, confirmation of voucher MKH146, the preparation methods used by informants, and any toxicity data remain open. A specialist would need to match the voucher to an accepted name before the local record could be used with confidence.