Lactarius maculatipes

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks and possibly other hardwoods; summer and fall (November through January in Florida); originally described from Florida, but also collected in Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Illinois; probably to be expected throughout the oak forests of eastern North America.

Cap: 3-10 cm; broadly convex with an inrolled margin when young; becoming shallowly depressed or vase-shaped with an uplifted margin; slimy when wet; smooth or finely roughened; whitish to pale yellowish; typically with vague zones of color or texture, at least when young.

Gills: Beginning to run down the stem; close or crowded; pale yellowish; typically bruising tan.

Stem: 3-8 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; tapering to base; slimy when fresh or wet; usually with yellowish potholes by maturity; whitish.

Flesh: White; firm; appearing to yellow when sliced, due to the milk.

Milk: White, becoming yellow on exposure to air (usually quickly, but originally described by Burlingham (1942) as taking from 10 minutes to an hour to change color; staining white paper yellow.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste acrid (sometimes developing slowly).

Spore Print: Yellowish.

Chemical Reactions: KOH greenish yellow on cap surface.

Dried Specimens: Dried caps, stems, and gills are bright, golden brownish orange. The oldest specimens in my herbarium have retained this color for 16 years--and Gertrude Burlingham's 1941 type collection for the species is still this color in online records.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6.5-9 x 6-7.5 ; broadly ellipsoid or occasionally subglobose; ornamentation 0.5-1 high, as amyloid warts and connecting lines that branch into short patterns but do not form complete reticula. Pleuromacrocystidia scattered; subcylindric to subfusiform; to about 55 x 8 . Cheilocystidia abundant; subcylindric to fusiform; to about 50 long. Pileipellis a very thick ixocutis.

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