Species flashcards

Description

Cap: 4–12 cm across; convex when young, later spreading and often depressed at the centre. The margin remains infolded for a long time before becoming wavy. Surface smooth and dry, whitish to cream-coloured, slightly yellowish when young and with ochre-brown spots in age.

Gills: Narrow, dense and slightly decurrent. White when young, later cream to pale ochre; they may become greyish green when damaged.

Stem: 3–8 cm tall and 1–3 cm thick, cylindrical, solid and often slightly tapering towards the base. Whitish, sometimes pale ochre, finely wrinkled to velvety.

Flesh: White, firm, hot and peppery. Latex abundant and white, slowly becoming grey-green to olive-green on drying.

Spores: Spore print white. Spores broadly ellipsoid, finely warted and partly linked by connecting lines, 6.5–9 × 5.5–6.5 µm.

Occurrence: A mycorrhizal species of warm deciduous woodland, especially with oak and beech. It fruits from June to September and tolerates drier periods well.

Edibility: Conditionally edible. Only young fruit bodies are marketable; parboiling and discarding the cooking water are required before preparation.

Lookalikes: Very similar to the peppery milkcap, but that species' latex does not turn green. The fleecy milkcap has a distinctly more velvety cap and stem and less dense gills.

Note: Lactifluus derives from the Latin „lac”, meaning milk, referring to the released latex. glaucescens means becoming bluish-green or greyish-green, referring to the latex's slow green colour change.

Species description: Charles Crossland first described the species in 1900 as Lactarius glaucescens. Annemieke Verbeken transferred it to Lactifluus in 2012.

Taxonomy

1. PhylumBasidiomycota
2. ClassAgaricomycetes
3. OrderRussulales
4. FamilyRussulaceae
5. GenusLactifluus

• Species: Lactifluus glaucescens
• Authority: (Crossl.) Verbeken (2012)
• English name: Green-tinged milkcap
• Ecological status: mycorrhizal
• Edibility: conditionally edible