The representatives of the subsection are relatively small pigeons. Their mild meat usually has a typical fish or crab odor; it turns yellow or brown with age, if it is injured or when cut. It reacts green with iron sulfate and reddish to orange with aniline. The spore powder is cream-colored or ocher. The spores are thorny or warty and hardly reticulate. They differ from the other herring deafblings primarily in their location; the deafblings occur in the alpine zone above the tree line (+ 2300 m), where they live in a symbiotic relationship with silverwort , herbaceous willows or other dwarf willows.
^ Monographic Key to European Russulas (1988). (PDF (1.4 MB)) In: The Russulales Website w3.uwyo.edu. P. 73 , archived from the original on July 28, 2010 ; Retrieved July 4, 2011 (English, translation by M. Bon's Russula key).
↑ Russulas. (DOC) Micologia.biz Web de micología Europea, p. 136 , accessed July 4, 2011 (Spanish).
