Lactarius croceus

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks and other hardwoods; growing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in eastern North America, but more common in the Appalachian Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Ohio and West Virginia.

Cap: 6-11 cm; convex with an inrolled margin when young; becoming centrally depressed, with an uplifted margin, or shallowly vase-shaped; sticky to tacky when fresh; bald, but finely rugged; pale to dark orange or brownish orange; with or without faint to moderate concentric zones of color.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or just beginning to run down it; close; short-gills frequent; orangish cream when young, becoming orangish with maturity; when fresh staining orangish yellow where damaged, then slowly brownish.

Stem: 3-5 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; more or less equal; bald; without potholes; dry; orangish cream to orange.

Flesh: Whitish; fairly firm; when fresh staining very slowly yellow to pale orange when sliced.

Milk: Scant; whitish; staining surfaces slowly yellow to pale orange; staining white paper yellow overnight.

Odor and Taste: Odor sharp and fragrant; taste quickly moderately acrid.

Chemical Reactions: KOH dull olive on cap surface.

Spore Print: Reported as yellowish by Hesler & Smith (1979).

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 5-7 m; ellipsoid; ornamentation consisting of amyloid warts and ridges extending about 0.5 m high, forming partially reticulated areas; apiculus long and inamyloid. Conspicuous hymenial macrocystidia not found. Pileipellis a thick ixocutis; hyaline in KOH; elements cylindric, 2.5-5 m wide.

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