Saffron milk cap
Lactarius deliciosus · 松乳菇
Occasional红菇科🍽 Reported Edible (Wild)
Reference sources describe this as an edible wild fungus. This guide provides no basis whatsoever for foraging or consumption.
The same species can be described differently across regions and stages of maturity, and countless look-alike species cannot be told apart by eye. Never use the information on this page to judge whether a real mushroom is safe to eat.
How to Tell
- Cap orange with concentric zones, center depressed
- Bleeds orange-red latex when cut, later staining green
- Grows under pine, appearing in patches in autumn
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 红菇科
- Hymenium
- Gills
- Grows On
- Mycorrhizal
- How Big
- 4–15 cm (cap diameter)
- Encounter Rate
- Occasional
- Habitat
- Ground in pine woods
Easily Confused With
HatsudakeCap pinkish orange with concentric zones
Woolly milkcapSaffron milk cap has orange milk and bruises green; woolly milkcap has white milk and a long-haired cap margin.
Brown roll-rimSaffron milk cap oozes orange-red latex when cut; brown roll-rim has no latex, and its gills only bruise brown when pressed.Fun Fact
Break it open and carrot-orange milk oozes out, slowly turning green in the air; bruised spots stain a verdigris green too.
More in this family
- Blackening brittlegill
- Charcoal burner
- Green-cracking russula
- Indigo milk cap
- Japanese russula
- Rank russula
- The sickener