page_title: Lactifluus deceptivus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Lactifluus deceptivus / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: The milkcap mushroom Lactarius deceptivus Peck. Specimen photographed in Strouds Run State Park, Athens, Ohio, USA. "Notes: These white hot milkies were popping up they the moss at the base of an oak tree."
context_page_description: Lactifluus deceptivus, commonly known as the deceiving milkcap, is a common species of fungus in the family Russulaceae. It is found throughout eastern North America on the ground in coniferous forests near hemlock or deciduous forests near oak, and in oak-dominated forests of Costa Rica. It produces large mushrooms with funnel-shaped caps reaching up to 25 cm in diameter, on top of hard white stems that may reach 4–10 cm long and up to 3 cm thick. The gills are closely spaced together and yellowish-cream in color. When young, the cap is white in all parts, but the depressed center becomes dull brownish in age and breaks up into scales. The edge of the cap has a roll of cottony tissue that collapses as the cap expands. The surface of the stem—especially near the base—has a velvety texture. The mushroom "bleeds" a milky white acrid latex when it is cut or injured. Similar milk-cap species with which L. deceptivus might be confused include Lactifluus piperatus, L. pseudodeceptivus, L. caeruleitinctus, L. subvellereus, Lactarius arcuatus and Lactarius parvulus.
context_section_description: The cap is 7.5–25.5 cm (3.0–10.0 in) in diameter, initially convex, but becomes funnel-shaped in age. The margin (cap edge) is rolled inwards and cottony when young, concealing the immature gills. The cap surface is dry, smooth and whitish when young, often with yellowish or brownish stains, but becomes coarsely scaly and darkens to dull brownish-ochre with age. The gills have an adnate to decurrent attachment to the stem, close to subdistant, white at first then cream to pale ochre. They are 5–65 mm (0.2–2.6 in) long and 1–7 mm (0.04–0.3 in) deep. The stem is 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long, up to 3 cm (1.2 in) thick, nearly equal in width throughout or tapered downward. It is dry, scurfy to nearly smooth and white, staining brown with age. It is initially stuffed (as if filled with cotton), but later becomes hollow. The flesh is thick and white, and between 3 and 15 mm (0.1 and 0.6 in) thick. The latex produced by the mushroom is white, and does not change color upon exposure to air, although it stains the mushroom flesh a yellowish-brown color.
  The odor of the flesh and latex may range from indistinct to pungent or turnip-like in age; the taste is strongly acrid—so much that it may have an anesthetizing effect in the throat. In his original description of the species, Peck reported "An experiment of its edible qualities was made without any evil consequences." Thorough cooking removes the bitter taste, but the mushroom is not highly regarded as an edible, and as Hesler and Smith have noted, "some of our acquaintances have found it rather undesirable (and indigestible)." Other guides list it as outright inedible. The mushroom is sold at traditional markets in Puebla, Mexico.
caption: The closely spaced gills are whitish before turning tan in age.
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