Lactarius controversus    Pers.:Fr. 

common name(s) : Pink-Gilled Milk Cap 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Incertae sedis/Russulales/Russulaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Agaricomycetideae/Russulales/Russulaceae  

synonyms: Lactarius albidoroseus 
(unconfirmed synonyms: Lactarius populinus)  

edibility : discard

photo gallery of Lactarius controversus
photo gallery of Lactarius controversus potential confusions with Lactarius controversus toxicity of Lactarius controversus genus Lactarius  

The cap is white with pink stains. The cap surface is smooth, viscid in wet weather.

The stem is white, without ring.

The flesh is white, unchanging or turning very slowly yellow when exposed to air; its taste is acrid; the odour is slightly unpleasant; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick), exuding when cut a white milk, turning slowly yellow.

The gills are whitish then pink, decurrent to adnate, crowded . The spore print is white. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows in broad-leaved woods, roadsides, parks, with poplar most of the time (in particular black poplar and aspen), also sometimes with willow, chestnut.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 16 cm (between 8 and 30 cm)
  height of stem approximately 6 cm (between 2 and 18 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 25 mm (between 10 and 40 mm)

Chemical tests : none.

Distinctive features : pink gills; large size; white colour

Lactarius controversus is quite rare and scattered in the forest of Rambouillet, and is infrequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Lactarius controversus in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Lactarius controversus in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18