Russula amoenolens  Romagn. (1952)                                       *All Collections from California

This is one of the frequent Russula species near conifers, which stands out with its "peppery" odor and matching hot taste. Harry Thiers listed several species of Section Pectinata from California. Later Mike Davis (UCD) who sequenced a number of collections from the SFSU herbarium found that all of them belonged to Russula amoenolens s.s. Most of my collections also appear to be amoenolens, except one patch with reticulate spores that seems to belong to Russula cerolens.

Spores with isolated ridges.