Okay I went out and got another red capped Russula growing near the spot I got one two days ago. I’m hoping it’s the same species.

I wanted a fresh one to taste and felt very brave today. I didn’t want to taste the cap bc I didn’t want to damage the chance of a perfect pretty spore print.

So I took a nibble of the stipe. I chewed it and it taste very much the way it smelled (like nothing),, until the tip of my tongue started burning. I found a spicy mushroom!

I’m not quite sure of my ability to separate “painfully acrid” and “very spicy” when it comes to others description of the taste.

Anyways, I spit it out and rinsed my mouth and now we’re just waiting on the spore print!

The inside of the stem was solid but spongey like angel food cake

Ochre spore print

largest I’ve found! 9cm tall and cap was 8.25cm across

There’s tons of these in the area. I’d love to ID to species based on region and the brightly colored ochre spore print

Spongey stem

Cap sticky when wet, and a little velvety when dry

The red cuticle peels back a cm or two easily but stops there

I don't want it to be JADRR

Please someone help me figure out what direction to look, lol! The cap looks a lot like Tricholomopsis formosa which was growing on the same stump, but the gills are so dramatic to the point where I’m not even sure if they’re gills or pores.

I did not cut it open to see flesh color or get a spore print because I wasn’t sure how to get a print from this.

all advice on how to ID welcome!

(Writing down all my observations and thoughts to reference next time I find a similar mushroom)

Stained dark blue the moment the stipe is removed from the cap which means it can’t be Baorangia bicolor, which bruises slowly

Scent indeterminate (Curry= Boletus sensibilis, mild/citrusy= Pulchroboletus rubrictrinus)

spore print was green (grayish olive= B. sensibilis, olive brown= P. rubrictrinus)

did not taste (mild/acidic = P. rubrictrinus)

ETA
KOH stained cap yellow, pores dark brownish black
Spore print was green-blue so I think the paper was stained blue from the mushroom

Pores seem to turn brown as they age

Cap flesh slow to bruise blue

Also considering Boletus speciosus