Are there any methods available (media, growth conditions) for growing axenic cultures of Russula fungi, apart from the paper sandwich method (Chilvers et al 1986) and the floating culture technique (Sangtien & Schmidt 2002)?
It depends on your group of Russula. Some groups are easier to culture than others. Pick a fresh and young mushroom, preferably before the button opens all the way, tear open and pick out a 1x1cm square piece of clean tissue if possible and culture on MMN medium at room temperature. I don't like using antibiotics because it does funny things to the culture. You will probably need to make dozen plates because some will not grow and others will be contaminated. It may take up a to month to see anything growing. These guys are slow!
At chemistry level: KOH on cap surface negative. Iron salts negative or slowly pink on stem surface. Microscopic Features: Spores 7-9 x 5.5-8 µ; broadly elliptical; with warts that usually project less than 1 µ but occasionally reach 1.2 µ; connectors usually forming partially reticulate areas. Pileipellis a cutis underneath a turf-like layer of erect elements, hyaline in KOH, with rounded to subacute apices; some elements with thick walls; pileocystidia up to about 140 x 8 µ, clavate to cylindric, positive in sulphovanillin and with refractive-ochraceous contents in KOH.
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