Lactarius turpis    (Weinm.) Fr. 

common name(s) : Ugly Milkcap, Leaden Milk Cap 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Incertae sedis/Russulales/Russulaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Agaricomycetideae/Russulales/Russulaceae  

synonyms: Lactarius plumbeus, Lactarius necator 

edibility : discard

photo gallery of  Lactarius turpis
photo gallery of  Lactarius turpis potential confusions with  Lactarius turpis toxicity of Lactarius turpis genus Lactarius  

The cap is green brown to olive green or blackish. The cap surface is without concentric bands, viscid or sticky.

The stem is greenish, without ring.

The flesh is white, turning brown when exposed to air; its taste is acrid; the odour is not distinctive; its texture is grainy (breaking like a chalk stick), exuding when cut a white milk, turning grey.

The gills are white then cream yellowish, adnate to decurrent, crowded . The spore print is white. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows in damp broad-leaved or mixed woods, on a rather acid soil, with birch essentially, sometimes also with beech, spruce, pine.

The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 13 cm (between 4 and 25 cm)
  height of stem approximately 6 cm (between 2 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 20 mm (between 10 and 30 mm)

Chemical tests : flesh becoming purple when in contact with potash (KOH) or ammonia (NH3).

Distinctive features : Dark olive brown to blackish cap; white and acrid milk, drying olive-green on gills; crowded white gills bruising brown; flesh becoming brown exposed to air; under birch and pines

Lactarius turpis is occasional and widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is frequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Lactarius turpis in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Lactarius turpis in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18