Mushroom Identifier

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 Milkcap (general)

Coconut Milkcap

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

Blushing Milkcap

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

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

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

Corrugated-cap Milkcap

Corrugated-cap Milkcap

Gilled

A large, dark reddish-brown milkcap with a velvety, deeply corrugated cap surface and cinnamon-tinted gills that stain brown. It bleeds abundant white latex from any damaged tissue.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Saffron Milk Cap

Saffron Milk Cap

Gilled

A stout orange milkcap with concentric bands on the cap, decurrent orange gills, and carrot-orange latex that slowly turns the flesh green. It grows only with pines.

Spore print · Pale cream to buff

False Saffron Milkcap

False Saffron Milkcap

Gilled

An orange spruce-associated milkcap whose carrot-coloured latex turns wine-red within half an hour and whose flesh and cap green strongly with age.

Spore print · Pale cream

Indigo Milk Cap

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

Lactarius scrobiculatus

Lactarius scrobiculatus

Gilled

A large yellow, zoned milkcap with a shaggy bearded cap margin and a stipe pitted with distinct coloured hollows (scrobicules). Its white latex turns sulphur-yellow within seconds of exposure.

Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow

Candy Cap

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