Fungi encyclopedia
A reference for the fungi you actually find
Each entry describes one species the way you meet it in the field — the cap and its surface, what sits underneath, the stipe and its base, the spore print colour, the substrate it fruits from, and the species most often confused with it.
Showing results for “Laccaria species (possibly Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis or Laccaria bicolor)”
Curry Milkcap
Gilled
A small dark chestnut-brown milkcap with a tiny pointed umbo and a powerful spicy, curry-like aroma that intensifies as the fruitbody dries. Its watery white latex does not change colour.
Spore print · Pale cream
Coconut Milkcap
Gilled
A small greyish-lilac birch associate with a dry, finely felty cap and decurrent buff gills. Its powerful coconut-like aroma, strongest in drying material, is the defining character.
Spore print · Pale cream
Candy Cap
Gilled
A rusty orange-brown milkcap of the Pacific coast with a dry, faintly wrinkled cap and thin watery latex. Dried fruitbodies develop a powerful sweet aroma often likened to maple syrup or fenugreek.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Blushing Milkcap
Gilled
A very large, heavy white milkcap blotched with wine-red or vinaceous patches, distinguished by crowded pink gills and copious white latex. It grows exclusively with poplars and willows, often in dune slacks and damp sandy ground.
Spore print · Pale pinkish-cream
Beech Milkcap
Gilled
An abundant beechwood milkcap with a slimy olive-grey cap patterned with dark, droplet-like concentric spots. Its copious white latex dries grey on the gills.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Saffron Milkcap
Gilled
A pine-associated milkcap with a concentrically zoned carrot-orange funnel cap, decurrent orange gills, carrot-coloured latex and a pitted stem, the whole fungus staining dull green where damaged.
Spore print · Pale ochre to buff
Indigo Milk Cap
Gilled
An unmistakable milkcap that is indigo blue throughout, cap, gills, stem and latex alike, with a concentrically zoned funnel-shaped cap that stains dull green where bruised or aged.
Spore print · Cream to pale yellow
Sooty Milkcap
Gilled
A dry, matt, sooty grey-brown milkcap of broadleaved woodland whose white latex turns the pale flesh and gills salmon-pink within moments of cutting. That colour reaction is its defining field character.
Spore print · Pale ochre with pinkish tinge
Yellowdrop Milkcap
Gilled
A pale pinkish-buff oak associate whose white latex turns brilliant sulphur yellow within seconds of exposure. Faint concentric cap zoning and a whitish hollow stipe complete the picture.
Spore print · Pale cream
Rufous Milkcap
Gilled
A deep brick-red milkcap of acid pine and birch woodland, recognised by the sharp little point at the centre of a dry, matt cap. Its white latex stays white and is produced abundantly.
Spore print · Pale cream
Peppery Milkcap
Gilled
A chalk-white broadleaf milkcap with extremely crowded, narrow, forking decurrent gills and abundant white latex that floods any cut surface.
Spore print · White
Velvet Milkcap
Gilled
A striking dark chocolate-brown milkcap with a dry velvety, wrinkled cap and startlingly white gills, whose white latex stains the flesh salmon-pink. It grows with spruce and fir in mossy northern and montane conifer forest.
Spore print · Pale yellow to ochre