Hygrophorus russula, commonly known as the pinkmottle woodwax, false russula and russula-like waxy cap, is a fungus native to North America. German naturalist Jacob Christian Schäffer described the species as Agaricus russula in 1774. The species name is derived from its reddish coloration, reminiscent of members of the genus Russula. French botanist Claude Casimir Gillet placed it in the genus Tricholoma in 1878, before American naturalist Calvin Henry Kauffman gave it its current name in 1918. Though Kauffman thought it resembled the former genus, he held that its waxy gills showed it to be placed to the genus Hygrophorus.