Species details
Rufous milkcap
Lactarius rufus
Conditional / expert preparation
Photo: Susanna · CC BY 4.0 · Photo source · License
Description
A reddish-brown milkcap with a distinct central boss, white latex, and very acrid taste.
Identification features
The cap is dry, reddish-brown, and often sharply bossed. Gills are crowded, pale, and later brownish. The stem is similar in colour to the cap; latex is white and very acrid.
Identification checklist
Check the dry reddish-brown bossed cap, white latex, spruce habitat, and crowded gills. FungiTrail does not recommend tasting latex.
Detailed features
- Cap
- The cap is dry, reddish-brown, and often sharply bossed.
- Hymenophore
- Gills are crowded, pale, and later brownish.
- Stem
- The stem is similar in colour to the cap; latex is white and very acrid.
- Flesh
- White to reddish; latex is white and very acrid.
- Smell
- May be unpleasant, without a single distinctive smell.
- Spore print
- White.
Size
- Cap diameter
- 3–10 cm
- Stem height
- 3–8 cm
- Stem diameter
- 0,5–1,5 cm
Habitat
Common with conifers, especially in damp spruce woodland, from summer to late autumn.
Fruiting period
July, August, September, October, November
Ecology
- Trophic mode
- Mycorrhizal
- Host trees
- Spruce (Picea), Pine (Pinus)
- Substrate
- Forest soil
- Soil
- Moist
- Notes
- Common with conifers, especially in damp spruce woodland, from summer to late autumn.
How to separate similar species
Curry milkcap is smaller and strongly smells of camphor/coumarin. Other brown milkcaps can be very similar.
Similar species
Interesting facts
Did you know? Very acrid white latex is a key reason not to identify the species from its red-brown cap alone.