Lactarius glaucescens

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Flesh without fibers, fracturing with the same sort of break as a piece of chalk
Spore and gill color limited to white, yellow, or ochre
Mycorrhizal: occuring only on the ground, and only when there are trees nearby
No ring or volva on stalk
All fleshy-stemmed mushrooms whose gills exude a latex when cut go here

Fruiting bodies (especially the gills) exuding a liquid (called a latex) when broken
Stalk (and sometimes even gills) usually concolorous with cap

Latex white, abundant in fresh specimens, extremely acrid
Cap up to 10" across; white to buff, sometimes with tinges of other colors
Gills sometimes extremely close

Entire fruiting body white, sometimes with pink or greenish tones, or fading to tan in age
Cap margin typically becoming uplifted in age, making the whole fruiting body vase-shaped

Here are the characters that distinguish this species from the others in its group. For its more general characters, see higher up on the page.
If there's just a few words or a microscopic feature here, a more thorough description can be found above.

Diagnosis

• Latex drying pale greenish; flesh stains and dries that color
  
• Gills extremely crowded, often pale pinkish before staining
  
• Cap up to 6" across
  
• Usually under hardwoods

Microscropic Characters

• Spores 6.5-9 x 5.5-6.5 µm

Comments

The staining reaction can be seen on the gills of the central mushroom, and the cap of the right-hand one
The color change sometimes takes over an hour


 

 

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