Layman's guide to fungus orders/families

[jasonhernandez74]

@lothlin

-Russula - hugely cosmopoliton and notoriously difficult genus to identify to species. These guys are usually brightly colored, in reds and yellows and greens, and usually have cream to white gills. They’re usually brittle, may be spicy, and may bruise or blacket. Genus is usually very easy with these but species is incredibly difficult, especially in america

I’ve been trying to find useful information on these, and most of it seems vague if not downright obscurantist. Why, for example, can I not find something along the lines of “these species taste peppery or acrid, these other species have no taste”? Or “these species are mycorrhizal with oaks, these with beech, these with pines…” and so forth? Everbody is so busy writing about how difficult they are that nobody bothers to group them by any observable characteristic. In post #22, you gave us a breakdown of Amanita sections, even if they cannot go to species; it sure would be nice to have something like this for Russula.