page_title: Lactarius alnicola
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Lactarius alnicola / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: The gills of the mushroom Lactarius alnicola A.H. Sm. Specimen collected from Novato, Marin Co., California, USA. Brightness increased using Photoshop by uploader.
context_page_description: Lactarius alnicola, commonly known as the golden milkcap, is a species of fungus in the family Russulaceae. The fruit bodies produced by the fungus are characterized by a sticky, vanilla-colored cap up to 20 cm wide with a mixture of yellow tones arranged in faint concentric bands. The stem is up to 5 cm long and has yellow-brown spots. When it is cut or injured, the mushroom oozes a white latex, which has an intensely peppery taste. The acrid taste of the fruit bodies renders them unpalatable. The fungus is found in the western United States and Mexico, where it grows in mycorrhizal associations with various coniferous trees species, such as spruce, pine and fir, and deciduous species such as oak and alder. It has also been collected in India. Two varieties have been named: var. pitkinensis, known from Colorado, and var. pungens, from Michigan.
context_section_description: The cap is 8–20 cm (3.1–7.9 in) wide, initially convex but becoming depressed to funnel-shaped in maturity. The cap margin is initially rolled inward, then becomes uplifted as the cap expands. The cap surface is sticky to slimy, and near the margin there are matted "hairs" beneath the slimy or sticky layer. The color of the cap surface is yellow-ochre, sometimes with concentric bands of lighter and darker shades; the color becomes paler near the margin. The gills are adnate (squarely attached to the stem) to decurrent (attached to and running down the length of the stem), narrow, and crowded closely together. Forked near the stem, the gills are initially whitish before becoming pale ochraceous-buff. There are many lamellulae—small gills that do not extend completely to the stem.
  The stem is 3–6 cm (1.2–2.4 in) long and 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) thick, nearly equal in width throughout or tapered downward, dry, hard, coarsely pitted, and whitish to cream yellowish. It is initially solid, then becomes hollow with age. The flesh is thick, hard, whitish, and slowly stains pale yellow after the mushroom has been cut open. It has no distinctive odor, while the taste is immediately acrid. The latex is sparse, white on exposure to air, and unchanging or very slowly changing color to yellow. It stains cut flesh yellow, and tastes acrid. According to mycologist David Arora, the oak-loving central and southern Californian population of this species has a more latent acrid taste. The spore print may range slightly in color: thin deposits are white, thick deposits are more yellow. The mushroom is considered inedible because of the intensely peppery taste.
caption: The gills are forked near the stem.
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