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Veil, none; the trama composed of vesiculose tissue, without a milky juice; gills rigid, fragile, acute on edge; stem central, confluent with the pileus; spores globose or subglobose, usually echinulate or verrucose, white cream-color, yellow or ochraceous.

Fleshy, putrescent, rigid-brittle mushrooms, mostly terrestrial, a few on much decayed wood, on sphagnum or on other mosses. A very distinct genus, most closely related to Lactarius, from which it differs by its lack of a milky juice. Hygrophorus differs in the thicker and more waxy nature of the gills although here there are evident certain signs of relationship with the species of Russula. Almost all of the species are edible after careful cooking since even the peppery forms then lose their sharp taste; in any case the mild species are perfectly safe when fresh, young and clean.

The pileus may be red, purple, violet, bluish, yellow, green, or white, except in the Compactae, a differentiated pellicle is present on the surface of the cap. This pellicle is often composed of more or less gelatinous hyphae and becomes viscid in wet weather, or it may remain dry and become pruinose or velvety. The pellicle is somewhat separable along the margin of the pileus and in many of the Fragiles can be peeled easily on the whole surface. The margin of the pileus is often striate at least in age. In the species with a thin cap, the lines of attachment of the gills to the cap show through as raised ridges which are often tuberculate because of the presence of the interspacial veins beneath and these striae may extend far toward the center of the pileus. In the species with firm and thick caps, the striations are not as marked or are obscurely developed on the margin only when the plant becomes old. Still, this character is so variable that it must be used with caution as a diagnostic character. The surface is usually glabrous or merely pruinose to velvety; the latter appearance is due to cystidia-like erect hyphae closely covering the pellicle.