| Author | Kibby, G. |
| Year | 2008 |
| Title | The Genus Russula in Great Britain with Synoptic Keys to Species (ed 5) |
| Type | Book/Report |
| How Complete | All the British species then known |
| Source | 5th edition edition, Blurb |
| Illustrations | Colour photographs and photomicrographs, line drawings of spores |
| Review (by Malcolm Storey) | An attractively produced synoptic key to Russula.
Many Russula species have been added to the British list in recent years and this guide covers these including many that previously were only mentioned in expensive continental works. The synoptic key uses 8 characters: cap colour, peelability, stem colour, average cap diameter, spore print colour, gill taste, discolouration, presence/absence of cap cystidia and fuchsinophile hyphae. Each character alternative gives a letter. The letters are concatenated to give a 7 or 8 letter "word" which is then looked up in a table. Some of the words relate to single species, others to short dichotomous keys. The method works very well, with the minor criticism that the two microchemical tests have been combined so that if you do not have one of the chemicals (eg acid fuchsin) the final letter can be one of two which is unnecessarily messy, but at least it is the final letter so you aren’t skipping over several pages. This edition includes 3 pages of very useful spore drawings and 38 colour plates. |
| Examine |  with a Microscope using 100x oil-immersion |
| Specimen Preparation | Specimens may be fresh or dried but must be in good condition. Spore prints, microscopy of spores in Melzer’s Iodine at x1000 with good optics and lighting; and of cap cuticle in 1. Sulphovanillin and 2. Acid Fuchsin (or Cresyl Blue) at x400. |
| Identification difficulty | With the microscopy, most are straightforward. |
