Portal:Fungi/Selected species/39

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lactarius torminosus, commonly known as the woolly milkcap or the bearded milkcap, is a large basidiomycete fungus in the genus Lactarius. It is found in the United Kingdom, Northern Europe, and is common in North America, where it grows in mixed forests in a mycorrhizal association with various trees, most commonly birch. Although it is valued for its peppery flavor and eaten after pickling in Russia and Finland, it is highly irritating to the digestive system when eaten raw. The toxins responsible for the acrid taste are destroyed by cooking.

The fruit bodies produced by the fungus have caps which can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) in diameter. They are pink-flesh colored, with whitish concentric zones. The edge of the cap is rolled inwards, and shaggy when young. On the underside of the caps are flesh-colored gills crowded closely together. It is on these fertile gill surfaces that the spore-bearing cells, the basidia are found. The cylindrical stem is a pale flesh color with a delicately downy surface, reaching lengths of up to 8 cm (3.1 in). When cut or injured, the fruit bodies ooze a white latex that does not change color upon exposure to air. The variety normandensis, in contrast, has latex that changes color from white to yellow.