Species ID Help

[Nick White]

Hello!
I am new to this forum and am looking forward to using it.

As a start, I took some pictures of a large mushroom yesterday and am unsure of its identity. I realise that is is difficult to confirm identity just from a photograph, so here is a bit of additional information.

It was a single fruitbody growing in Beechwood leaf litter. I did not notice any particular smell, but it appeared to exude a milky substance on the stem. In terms of size, it was approximately 10 cm high and much the same in diameter.
Any suggestions would be a great help.
Thanks, Nick

[rangeral]

lactarius of some kind, maybe lactarius controversus

[fairplay]

Hello Nick and welcome to WAB.

Assuming it is a type of Lactarius (which produce a milky liquid when the gills or cap is fractured) then L.fluens would look like a good candidate, going by that little 'pleat' in the cap, but that can only be a guess as there are other whitish ones to chose from.

Neil.

[rangeral]

its the right habitat for L.fluens but arent they a greenish/grey color

[Nick White]

Thanks for your replies, they were very useful.
L.fluens, did not feature in my rather limited fungus literature, but on further research elsewhere, descriptions of it do seem consistent with my observation.
Thanks again
Nick

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by rangeral

its the right habitat for L.fluens but arent they a greenish/grey color

In Bon, they are illustrated as green/grey, in Collins it is very pale, and in Philips it is also pale, but admittedly not as pale as the specimen shown here.

I am not familiar with L.fluens at all - it is only a plausible suggestion.

Neil.

[Ken Burgess]

Originally Posted by fairplay

I am not familiar with L.fluens at all - it is only a plausible suggestion.

Neil.

It doesn't have the characters typical of Lactarius fluens, a species which is sometimes confused with Lactarius blennius. Lactarius fluens tends to have a concentrically zoned cap with colours ranging from buff through to greyish brown. The cap also tends to have a distinctive pale margin.

I don't believe this is actually a Lactarius. Where the cap has split in the close-up image you can see that the context looks fairly fibrous, which I would not expect to see for Lactarius.

I would be thinking along the lines of Clitocybe, though I can't put a name to it, or possibly Leucopaxillus giganteus, but there isn't enough information to be certain, for me at any rate.

Ken

[fairplay]

Quote: It was a single fruitbody growing in Beechwood leaf litter. I did not notice any particular smell, but it appeared to exude a milky substance on the stem. End quote.

Nick, did you actually touch the milk or are you assuming there was milk from examination of the photos afterwards. I must say the photo seems to show possibly dried milk, but it could also be something else.

Neil.

[Ken Burgess]

Originally Posted by Nick White

it appeared to exude a milky substance on the stem.

Stickiness on the stem would not suggest Lactarius to me on its own. Anyone experienced with Lactarius would be looking to confirm latex exuding from the broken flesh, particularly of the gills. And looking at the photograph, it does not have the jizz of any Lactarius species that I can think of.

Ken

[Nick White]

Hi Neil,
thanks for your comment. I did not touch the milk, no. the milk was not immediately obvious and was enhanced by the use of fill in flash.
Nick