Sooty Milkcap

Lactarius fuliginosus

Spruce forests. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap 5-8 (10) cm across, domed, later becoming flattened, depressed, with an umbo, velvety, blackish-brown, blackish ochre-brown, when old fading to a paler brownish-grey colour. Young gills pale ochre, later yellowish-brown, crowded, adnate. Stem 3—7x1—2.5 cm, the colour of the cap, paler near the gills, with white mould-like down at the base. Flesh whitish, slowly turning red when pressed or cut; the white milk and the flesh turn reddish on reacting with air. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies blackish ochre-brown, turning red when cut. Grows a few fruiting bodies together in old, damp, thinned-out spruce forests with pine. Very rare. Edible, but of low value. Should be classed as worthy of protection.