Camomila Studio

Mushrooms · Plate II

Saffron milk cap

Lactarius deliciosus

An orange cap with darker concentric rings, domed with an inrolled edge at first, then sunken into a funnel. Its crowded gills are orange too, and its short, hollow stem is marked with small pits of a deeper orange.

It always grows near pines, joined to their roots: where there are no pines, there are no saffron milk caps. It appears in autumn after the rains, from September until well into winter.

Its scientific name, Lactarius, comes from the Latin lac, “milk”: when cut it releases tiny drops of orange latex. Wherever it is bruised or ageing, green stains appear, like verdigris on copper.

Just for the pleasure of looking: identifying mushrooms is a job for experts.

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