Lactarius glyciosmus (FL: Fr.) Fr.

Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, Annemieke Verbeken & Jan Vesterholt, 1998, The Genus Lactarius, Copenhagen: Danish Mycological Society : 170

Lactarius glyciosmus (FL: Fr.) Fr.

Agaricus glyciosmus Fr.: Fr., 1821 : 72; Lactarius glyciosmus (FL: Fr.) Fr., 1838 : 348. Type: Not selected; described from Sweden.

A small to medium-sized Lactarius with pinkish buff colours and a smell like coconuts; associated with Betula .

DESCRIPTION: Cap 12-45 mm, at first convex with a decurved margin, soon expanded to slightly depressed, sometimes with a small umbo; surface finely velutinous to squamulose, dry, pale to dark pinkish buff, greyish pink, clay-pink, dark greyish buff, smoke-grey, greyish brown or brownish olive, palest near margin, azonate or indistinctly zonate, zones clay-buff to fawn or paler, slightly hygrophanous. Gills slightly decurrent to decurrent, rather narrow to narrow, crowded, not forked, pale to dark pinkish buff, with age becoming spotted clay-buff to greyish brown. Stem 20-70 x 3- 10 mm, cylindric, often compressed or furrowed; surface smooth, slightly pruinose at the top, dry, olivaceous buff or pale to dark pinkish buff, turning greyish pink to clay-buff or cinnamon, often with whitish felt at the base. Flesh soft and fragile, stuffed or hollow in the stem, pale cream to dark pinkish buff, taste mild or slowly becoming slightly acrid; smell sweetish, fruity, like coconuts. Milk sparse to rather abundant. whitish; taste mild, soon moderately acrid. Spore deposit pale cream.

Spores 5.7-8.6 x 4.5-70 um, av. 6.5-8.1 x 5.0-6.3 um, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid. Q = 1.15-1.40, av. 1.26-1.28; ornamentation 0.5-1.0 um high, of elongate warts and ridges, connected to form an incomplete, zebra-like reticulum, closed meshes numerous; plage inamyloid or irregularly amyloid in the distal part. Basidia 35-50 x 7-12 um, mostly subclavate, (2- or) 4-spored. Pleuromacrocystidia uncommon to abundant, 40-70 x 7-12 um, cylindric or subclavate, apex obtuse or mucronate. Gill edge heterogeneous; cheilomacrocystidia scattered to rather numerous, 25-60 x 5-9.5 um, cylindric to subelavate, mostly with obtuse apex. Pileipellis a poorly differentiated cutis with trichoderm-like tufts; hyphae 4-12 um broad.

ECOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION: Typically associated with Betula , but according to Neuhoff (1956) it may also occur under Salix and Alnus . Common from the end of May through October in wet places with Sphagnum , as well as in grassy roadsides.

DISCUSSION: Lactarius glyciosmus is a rather variable species. Typical specimens are easily distinguished from L. mammosus by the much paler colours and more slender stature. For microscopical differences, see under L. mammosus . Both species associate with Betula , but with marked differences in ecological preferences.