| Major Groups > Gilled Mushrooms > Pale-Spored > Lactarius > Lactarius glyciosmus |
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Lactarius glyciosmus [ Basidiomycetes > Russulales > Russulaceae > Lactarius . . . ] by Michael Kuo Lactarius glyciosmus is a drab little milky cap, but two things make it pretty easy to identify: it is mycorrhizal with birch, and it smells like coconuts. On the West Coast Lactarius glyciosmus might be confused with Lactarius cocosiolens, which also smells like coconuts but features a slimy brownish orange cap and appears in coastal, birch-less forests. Lactarius glyciosmus is apparently edible; I have not tried it. Description: Ecology: Mycorrhizal with Paper Birch (possibly also with other birches and with alders); late summer and fall; widely distributed in North America wherever the host tree occurs (see the map on the Paper Birch page). Cap: 2-9 cm; thin and fragile; convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming shallowly depressed, flat, or shallowly vase-shaped; dry; smooth, finely roughened, finely hairy, or (at maturity) very finely scaly; usually pinkish buff but occasionally somewhat darker and browner; sometimes with vague concentric zones of color or texture. Gills: Attached to the stem or running down it; close; whitish to pinkish or yellowish; not bruising or discoloring. Stem: 2-10 cm long; up to 1.5 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; without potholes; smooth; colored like the cap or paler. Flesh: Insubstantial; pale; not changing when sliced. Milk: White; not changing on exposure to air; not staining tissues. Odor and Taste: Odor of coconuts; taste slightly acrid. Spore Print: Cream. Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface yellowish. Microscopic Features: Spores 6-10 x 5-7 µ; broadly elliptical; ornamentation with prominences up to 1 µ high; connecting lines sometimes forming, at most, a broken reticulum. REFERENCES: (Fries, 1818) Fries, 1838. (Saccardo, 1887; Hesler & Smith, 1979; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Phillips, 1991/2005; Heilmann-Clausen et al., 1998.) Further Online Information: Lactarius glyciosmus in Hesler & Smith (1979) |
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Cite this page as: Kuo, M. (2007, September). Lactarius glyciosmus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_glyciosmus.html |