Fiery Milkcap

Lactarius pyrogalus

Deciduous and mixed forests with oak and hazel, parks. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap 3-8 cm across, sometimes larger, faintly zoned, matt, pale ochre, dirty yellowish ochre-brown, with a delicate violet tinge. Gills thick, pinkish, ochre-coloured, subdecurrent. Stem 3-8x0.3-2 cm, yellowish. Flesh white, turning yellow when cut or broken, with a pleasant fruity smell, not bitter; the milk is white, acrid-tasting, and does not change colour.

Characteristic features: cap the colour of an old nutshell; especially fond of the company of hazel. Usually grows in small numbers of fruiting bodies, in forests and parks. Edible, common.