Epping Forest, London, UK, August 2020
Sickener (Russula emetica)
I was super excited to find red Russulas and have an excuse to taste test them - russulas are infamously difficult to identify down to a species, and these poisonous sickeners, and their close relative the beechwood sickener (Russula nobilis) are pretty much impossible to distinguish with certainty by sight alone from edible rosy brittlegill (Russula rosea), Russula paludosa, and could even be confused with the flirt (Russula vesca).
Luckily, sickeners and beechwood sickeners can be distinguished as poisonous by their taste - take a small chunk, chew it briefly and spit it out thoroughly. The poisonous sickener mushrooms have a hot or peppery taste, and may slightly sting/burn your lips and tongue in a similar way. By contrast, edible red-capped, white-stemmed Russulas have a generic, mild, mushroom-ey taste.
Though they’re very unlikely to kill you, eating these mushrooms will cause severe stomach pains, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea.
Often growing in large, scattered groups, they brighten up the forest floor, though these specimens are less vibrantly red than usual, it having rained and dried in the 24 hours before my walk.
