Saffron Milk Cap

not listed

not listed

not listed

Saffron Milk Cap is a common, large, brightly colored mushroom. It is found on the ground in hardwood and mixed hardwood and coniferous forests in the summer and fall. It grows on the roots of spruces and other conifers.

When young the cap is convex. There is a depression at the center of the cap and the margin is rolled inward. It is yellow-orange to orange with numerous purplish or saffron blotches, and may have concentric rings of color. It is dry, smooth, and 1½″ to 6″ in diameter. It exudes a carrot-colored latex or “milk” that does not change color. It is sticky or slimy when wet. As it ages the cap becomes broadly funnel-shaped. Older caps are irregularly tinged greenish.

The gills are pinkish-orange to saffron when young, becoming orange, then pistachio green at maturity. They are crowded and attached to the stalk, running down the stalk on mature mushrooms.

The stalk is orange, smooth, short, stout, 1¼″ to 2⅜″ tall, and ⅝″ to ¾″ in diameter. It becomes hollow when it ages.

The flesh is pale yellowish. The taste is mild.

The spore print is pale ochre.

Mycorrhizal with spruces and other conifers

Summer to fall

Sources

4, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Widespread and common

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Location: 55606 (Hovland, MN)

found under dense stands of balsam fir. I've found these for a number of years in the area, typically while hunting hedgehogs.