Lactarius picinus    Fr. 



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

synonyms: Lactarius fuliginosus-picinus, Lactarius fuliginosus-montanus 

edibility : inedible

potential confusions with Lactarius picinus toxicity of Lactarius picinus genus Lactarius  

The cap is brown to black. The cap surface is smooth, not viscid nor sticky.

The stem is brown to black, without ring.

The flesh is white, turning slowly to pink when exposed to air; the odour is faint; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick), exuding when cut a white milk, turning pink.

The gills are cream to ochre, adnate to decurrent, crowded . The spore print is white. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in coniferous woods, on a rather acid or calcareous soil, most of the time with spruce, sometimes fir.

The fruiting period takes place from July to November.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 7 cm (between 2 and 10 cm)
  height of stem approximately 8 cm (between 5 and 15 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 15 and 30 mm)

Distinctive features : dark brown cap, without acute umbo; stem concolorous to cap; milk and flesh white, acrid, turning slowly pink to air; with conifers

Lactarius picinus is still unreported so far in the forest of Rambouillet, and is quite rare, more generally speaking .



page updated on 14/01/18