Ugly Milkcap

Lactarius necator

Forests, parks, especially grassy, damp spruce forests. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies large. Cap 5-15 (20) cm across, sometimes even larger, massive, fleshy, flattened, depressed, margins incurved, surface rough, fibrous, slimy, yellowish-green, later blackish-green, greenish-brown. Gills crowded, narrow, white, quickly becoming cream, greyish-yellowish, with white milk. Stem 3—7x1—3 cm, fairly short, thick, the colour of the cap, with white milk. Flesh thick (up to 2 cm), yellowish, with abundant bitter, burning-tasting white milk. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies dirty greenish-brown in colour. Grows in groups, rarely singly; likes grassy, damp places and the company of spruce and birch. Very common, edible; after boiling in salted water the bitterness disappears.