Russula xerampelina has a characteristic odour of boiled crustacean.

The taste of Russula xerampelina is mild.

Russula xerampelina is widely distributed; quite common in northern temperate zones, and often ranging into the Arctic Circle, it also ranges south to Costa Rica.

Russula xerampelina, also commonly known as the crab brittlegill or the shrimp mushroom, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the brittlegill genus Russula.

Russula xerampelina was originally described in 1770 as Agaricus xerampelina from a collection in Bavaria by the German mycologist Jacob Christian Schaeffer, who noted the colour as fusco-purpureus or "purple-brown".