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Milks-cap or chanterelle-esque mystery mushroom...


Pinecones

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This is another gilled mystery I've accidentally plucked a couple times as they grown right in amongst the boletes that are booming right now, and from above they look very similar.

I've groomed my pocket guides and have found nothing on this mushroom (will be getting a proper in-depth book soon).  At first I expected a milk-cap or chanterelle family mushroom because of the shape, but I'm really at a loss!

Caps are creamy buff colored, smooth, and slightly concave.  All that I've found have been 3-4" across and relatively just as tall.

Mushrooms excrete no liquid or 'milk', they are very dry.  They dehydrate very quickly with minimal shrinkage.

Gills are tight, deep, and straight, with a rich peach hue, with a funny grey-blue-green hue at the very end where the gill meets the cap, and also this color can be detective when looking at the gills from certain angles.   This is not a bruise or stain but a consistent color feature.

Stipe is perfectly smooth and an even richer peach color with no ring.  Stipe is virtually the same width at both the top and the base.

Very subtle, slightly sweet, classic fungus smell.  Appealing smell.

I accidentally picked two of these the other day, and they had green and purple bruising on them when I got back from the 3 hour journey.  I air dried them; they retained a bit of the odd purple bruising hue when dried.  (not dried with the intent of eating, just on my to-do list to identify)

These two in the photo got snagged in the bolete mayhem just this evening; it's been maybe 45 minutes and no bruising has begun. 10 minutes ago I intentionally sliced and damaged one of them and still no discoloration. 

Found in high elevation mostly-coniferous forest amongst boletes.  I've found very few of them, and when I find them there's usually only 2-3 in an area of thick but very short undergrowth.

 

 

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bolete2 - 10.jpg

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I think these may be one of the Lactarius species that has orange (or possibly red) latex. These types can have very little latex, not enough to ooze out of a cut. To see the latex in one of these, slice through the mushroom and gently press the cut flesh against a finger or a piece of white paper and then look for a small red/orange stain on the finger/paper.

Here's a possible species  http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_deliciosus_areolatus.html .

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Looks like a species of Lactarius we used to collect back in Russia. гриб рыжик. Orange mushroom. The locals used to salt and pickle these along with other Lactarius species. Very delicious shrooms. If what you have here is гриб рыжик, I envy you.

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There are a variety of different Orange/red-Latex Milkies that grow in NA. They are presumably all edible --I have never seen anything to the contrary. Most reports say that none of them are as good as the European species. I have eaten two types here in eastern NA, and I kinda like them. 

I have heard that salt-preserved Lactarius mushrooms are a delicacy. Never had a chance to sample these. 

One way to avoid SOME of the problematic Lactarius mushrooms to to taste/spit a tiny bit. The hot/bitter/acrid ones should be discarded. BUT... my understanding is that some of the hot/acrid ones are very good to eat when salt-preserved (the method Dan mentions). 

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8 hours ago, Dave W said:

I think these may be one of the Lactarius species that has orange (or possibly red) latex. These types can have very little latex, not enough to ooze out of a cut. To see the latex in one of these, slice through the mushroom and gently press the cut flesh against a finger or a piece of white paper and then look for a small red/orange stain on the finger/paper.

Here's a possible species  http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_deliciosus_areolatus.html .

 

So if you slice the cap, where the gills meet the meat of the cap it's burnt red-orange.  If I press it to paper it leaves a very faint blood-like impression of that line.  If I drag or smear it, it leaves a yellow smear.

This morning there was prominent bruising on the mushroom I damaged last night.  A bit of that purpley-blue mixed with the green.

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Sounds like you've got an Orange/Red-Latex Milkie, Pinecones.   Orange-to-saffron latex in NA http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_deliciosus.html   . The red-latex species of Europe  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_sanguifluus . There is a similar species that grows in western NA. 

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woah... you've just enlightened me to a thing I've never thought of before...

 

...pickling mushrooms.

 

o:

Know any good recipes?  :P

 

I will do a bit of looking into it but I suspect you are correct!  I would not have trusted this mushroom to be edible!  But then, sometimes the most terrifying and counter-intuitive mushrooms are the best!

9 minutes ago, Dave W said:

Sounds like you've got an Orange/Red-Latex Milkie, Pinecones.   Orange-to-saffron latex in NA http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_deliciosus.html   . The red-latex species of Europe  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_sanguifluus . There is a similar species that grows in western NA. 

I just skimmed the article and the only thing I see is that these mushrooms are expected to stain dark red; not green or bruisy-purple.  The mushrooms I picked definitely do not stain red.  I will continue to do some research on the genus!

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