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Danny’s DNA Discoveries – Lactarius of the PNW
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Introduction
abundant common uncommon rare - colour codes match my Pictorial Key and are my opinions and probably reflect my bias of living in W WA. Rare species may be locally common in certain places at certain times.Click here to download the FASTA data of all my DNA sequences
Read my introduction to Russula for an explanation of what makes Russula and Lactarius unique among gilled mushrooms. Lactarius are notable for bleeding a latex, often called a milk, when broken, especially from the gills. The milk is usually white, but may be yellow, orange or red (or rarely blue!) and even change colours while you watch. They look somewhat like Russulas, but unfortunately, there's a lot more variety of statures, so you can't as easily learn to recognize a Lactarius on sight as you can a Russula - you may need to break it to see the latex (which may be scanty or, if the mushroom has dried out, even lacking). Not every "bleeding" mushroom is a Lactarius, though. The most common other "bleeders" are much smaller and more delicate Mycenas. Even small Lactarius are not very delicate (although they are fragile, as explained under Russula).
Some common features of Lactarius that might help you spot one are a frequently zoned cap, scrobiculate stem (covered with large, round pits of pigment), and a inrolled cap margin that might be bearded with hairs. Some species don't have any of these features, though. It's very common for them to taste acrid, or somewhat hot like a hot pepper, just like some Russulas. Not many other mushrooms besides Russula and Lactarius have that taste.Normally there is a subgenus/clade named after the genus, so there "has been/should be/will be again" a clade "Lactarius", but right now, the species that have been placed in clade "Lactarius" are not actually related to each other, so some fixing and shuffling of species will have to be done before that clade name can be properly used.
![]() This clade has coloured milk, instead of the whitish milk that every other Lactarius will have (although the white milk in other clades might turn yellow in a matter of seconds or eventually stain tissue purple). Usually you'll find orange or red latex, and the mushrooms themselves are usually orange or red too, often with a beautiful, prominent green staining. The east coast has a common blue Lactarius that bleeds blue milk and I'm very jealous. Most of them taste rather mild, or at most slightly bitter or slightly hot. Species mentioned: Lactarius deliciosus, deliciosus var. areolatus, deliciosus var. olivaceosordidus, deliciosus var. piceus, aurantiosordidus, deterrimus, aestivus, rubrilacteus, barrowsii
Lactarius 'deliciosus' group - first the many orange species with orange latex. (Orange and white species with red latex will follow). I'm finally getting a handle on how many species we have in this group. We don't have the real L. deliciosus, nor do we have the real L. deterrimus as has been reported (the latter being a sister species to L. aurantiosordidus, below, which it probably has been mistaken for). All our varieties will probably need their own species name and won't continue to be considered varieties. As a group, the L. deliciosus group mushrooms usually have zoned caps that are orange with orange latex that may turn reddish or purplish when exposed to air, scrobiculate stems, and they turn significantly green in age or after handling, making them quite remarkable. The taste is usually mild, but some get somewhat bitter (like black pepper) and some may show a bit of the hot pepper acrid taste so common in other clades. When known, I will describe how a species differs from this general description.
Lactarius deliciosus var areolatus ID - from Idaho, possibly the most common species inland at high elevations in the Rockies usually near spruce or pine. It seems rare nearer the coast. The latex can be hard to find and the cap may crack, but both these features can be explained by growth in dry inland habitats (which may also dull the colours). It needs its own name, but L. areolatus is already taken. It appears we know its DNA from a couple of collections used by Nuytinck in her official 2007 study of the species found in North America. Microscopically, you can identify it by somewhat larger spores than most and a lack of large pleuromacrocystidia on the gill faces. No local photo.
Lactarius 'deliciosus PNW10' (sensu Hesler & Smith) (conifer version) - In their important 1979 work on this genus, H&S thought the European L. deliciosus occured here, but the DNA of our species shows it probably needs its own name and can't even be considered a variety of that. The DNA was very confusing - a couple dozen sequences were all scattered around the tree up to 3% different from each other, much higher than the usual 0.5%. However, I recently found a couple of sequences with more than one nucleotide at 4 or so key locations, showing that all the sequences fell somewhat neatly into two piles, 1% apart from each other, with most members of each pile within 0.5% of each other once you account for the ambiguities. Nuytick's 2014 study where she described L. aestivus (below) and provided sequences of L. deliciosus sensu H&S only showed examples from one of the piles, so I am labeling this one as the official H&S concept. I don't have tree information for most of these sequences (one was from pine), but it is usually reported from spruce and pine. We need more collections from other conifers as I suspect this may not be restricted to spruce and pine. The spores are somewhat smaller than 'var. areolatus' above and it is more common near the coast. Now keep reading. Lactarius 'deliciosus PNW11' (sensu Hesler & Smith) (pine version) - A distinct clade almost 1% different than the former clade also emerged, and every collection appears to be from 2- or 3-needle pine. Since the former collections didn't have strongly associated tree data and since this clade is distinctly different genetically, for now I am allowing for the fact that L. deliciosus sensu H&S may need to be split into two varieties or subspecies. Lactarius deliciosus PNW10 and the sister pine clade PNW11 © Ann Goddard and Daniel Winkler
Lactarius cf deliciosus var. piceus EU - this spruce species has pleuromacrocystidia but smaller spores than the duller orange L. aurantiosordidus (below) and is reported as being L. deliciosus var. piceus from Europe, but I have my doubts that it is what it is. Not only has every other species turned out to be different than its European counterpart, H&S themselves seemed unsure about this identification. We have no EU DNA to compare with, nor do we have any local DNA yet. We are badly in need of sequenced collections to see what this species really is. No local photo.
Lactarius aestivus WA - This group member is our most abundant species, described from Washington, and easy to recognize (except for a possible southern lookalike described next) with bright orange colours and latex. It grows with true fir and hemlock but does not turn appreciably green. Lactarius aestivus © Danny Miller
Lactarius 'vesper PNW01' - This lookalike species is not sister to L. aestivus, nor is it inside the clade of confusing L. deliciosus group species mentioned above. It looks a lot like L. aestivus, (bright orange with only a little green staining), but the milk, instead of staying bright orange for a while, quickly turns intensely reddish-orange. It was found once in Southern Oregon and three times in WA where fir was the tree common to two collections (the same habitat as L. aestivus). Lactarius 'vesper PNW01' © Jonathan Frank and Michael Beug (2 images)
Lactarius aurantiosordidus WA (deliciosus var. olivaceosordidus OR) - This small-ish spruce species is dingy orange, with dingy orange latex and usually a green cast to the cap. It is a California species whose DNA has uncommonly been found in Oregon and BC. Other spruce species without names so far will probably (hopefully) be larger, with brighter cap and milk colouring. The type sequence of L. deliciosus var. olivaceosordidus was recently discovered to be the same as this species, and not a variety of L. deliciosus. Probable Lactarius aurantiosordidus © Debbie Viess
Red Latex Lactarius rubrilacteus OR - This abundant species, described from Oregon, has red "blood" or latex, and is an especially cool species. It is a dull orange colour and can turn considerably green. It is a conifer species, under Doug fir and pine, at least. Lactarius rubrilacteus © Steve Trudell
Lactarius barrowsii NM - This rare mushroom is very pale, almost white, but may have orange and green splotches. Its milk is red. It has been found in either Washington or Idaho (the report is conflicting, so perhaps near the border), but is more common in the SW (Arizona, Colorado) under pine where it was described from NM. It is probably an inland species. Lactarius barrowsii © Dimitar Bojantchev |
![]() Candy caps are species of Lactarius that smell and taste like maple syrup when dried. They make excellent desserts, something unusual for a mushroom. To eliminate the more typical mushroom flavours from the food, the mushrooms are powdered and mixed into a fat - like cream or butter and used to make ice cream or popcorn or cookies. Unfortunately they are hard to identify because they do not smell or taste that way when fresh (some people use a lighter to burn them to see if they can coax a sweet smell out of them in the field for identification purposes). There also exists an Oregon candy cap "truffle" in this clade. Mushrooms in this clade are usually small, with caps about 5 cm wide and stems <1 cm thick, but there are exceptions. They are usually orange-brown to red-brown and bleed a white milk. They are mostly mild or only slightly hot tasting (with one notable exception). (A few small brown or greyish-brown Lactarius that are not in this clade either have a velvety cap or are very slimy all over).Species mentioned: Lactarius rubidus, fragilis, camphoratus, subviscidus, substriatus, subflammeus, aurantiacus, luculentus var. luculentus, luculentus var. laetus, tabidus, theiogalus, thejogalus, alpinus var. alpinus, alpinus var. mitis, occidentalis, carbonicola, lepidotus, rufus, atrobadius, badiosanguineus, hepaticus, xanthogalactus, chrysorheus, vinaceorufescens
Lactarius rubidus OR - Our local common candy cap species (described from Oregon) has a dry cap, watery-white latex (like skim milk instead of whole milk), and completely mild taste. The cap is somewhat of a dull orange-brown. It will smell like maple syrup when dried, but several almost identical looking species don't. Other species around the world, like L. fragilis and L. camphoratus, look very much the same but are not found here. Lactarius rubidus © Noah Siegel
There are many confusing candy cap lookalikes. Hardly anybody knows how to tell them all apart and that is partly because the descriptions of two of them appear to have been swapped for decades, complicating our understanding of them. Here is what I have been able to sort out. Lactarius subviscidus WA - all the literature calls collections that look like this Lactarius substriatus, but the type sequence shows that mushrooms matching the official description of L. substriatus are really L. subviscidus, so all subsequent literature may have gotten it backwards. Here is the official description of L. substriatus which we should probably start calling L. subviscidus instead: a somewhat viscid cap, white milk that slowly stains yellowish, a taste that turns slowly acrid, and a bright orange cap with a paler rim that can be striate. Unfortunately, this means that L. subviscidus is the one that is striate, not L. substriatus. Lactarius substriatus WA (= L. subflammeus OR) - very similar. Here is the official description of L. subviscidus which we should probably start calling L. substriatus based on the mix-up described above: it has an opaque cap that is more uniformly a deep, dark orange-reddish brown, usually lacking striations (this mix-up means L. subviscidus is the species that is striate, not L. substriatus). Like L. subviscidus, L. substriatus is also somewhat viscid and slowly tastes somewhat acrid. The milk will never turn yellow (in the description of L. subflammeus) or the milk will at most stain paper yellow overnight (in the description of L. subviscidus which is probably describing L. substriatus). The type of L. subflammeus (a Smith species from Oregon) has the same sequence as some paratypes of L. substriatus, and it makes sense that the two are the same species given the very slight differences between them. L. subflammeus has always been described as almost identical to L. subviscidus, but remember, since the descriptions are backwards, L. subflammeus is actuially the same species as L. substriatus. Lactarius subviscidus (matching the description of L. substriatus) and L. substriatus (matching the description of L. subviscidus) © Ed Barge
Lactarius PNW02 ('acrid orange') - known from Victoria BC through California (a species Cathy Cripps called "sp. 2"). It is paler or duller orange than L. substriatus and L. subviscidus and is probably more quickly acrid than both. Otherwise, it is similar, with a somewhat viscid, non-striate cap, and white milk that does not stain yellow. It is smallish (caps around 2.5cm across) and grows in large groups near Doug fir, fir or Garry oak. It is known in Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast as 'acrid orange', where they explain that it was going to be called Lactarius desjardinii, but that name is now taken so it needs a new name. Lactarius PNW02 © Jonathan Frank and Michael Beug
Lactarius luculentus OR - Lactarius luculentus var. luculentus from Oregon is another viscid capped lookalike with white milk, but with a slightly bitter taste (not usually acrid). This variety has a darker orange cap usually without striations and an off-white spore print. It is found under Douglas fir. Its DNA has been found in WA as well. L. luculentus var. laetus WA - L. luculentus var. laetus, from WA under spruce and probably other conifers, is a variety with a brighter orange cap (brighter than PNW02 and not as dark as L. subviscidus and especially L. substriatus). This variety also has a pure white spore print. Otherwise it has the same viscid cap and slightly bitter taste. Colorado sequences supposedly of var. laetus are somewhat different, so the Rockies may have a third, as yet undescribed variety. Lactarius aurantiacus is the name of a European mushroom that we have incorrectly used in the past for this and other lookalikes. Lactarius luculentus var luculentus © Buck McAdoo, Lactarius luculentus var laetus © Gabriela D'Elia
Lactarius tabidus EU (=L. theiogalus EU, = L. thejogalus EU) - this species has a dry cap (like the candy cap) and duller colours than the others, possibly even brown tones like Lactarius occidentalis, which it is probably most like, even in the sense that it is found near alder (and maybe other hardwoods). It has white milk that is slowly acrid tasting. We were starting to believe that the few reports of this European candy cap lookalike were mistaken, but then we found one in OR confirmed by DNA, although we only got ITS1 and ITS2 separately and were missing some areas (most collections have 2 different alleles in 5.8s with an indel in one of them, which makes it extremely difficult to obtain a full ITS sequence). With only 2 fragments of ITS DNA, we could not make a complete comparison. Then a collection was found in WA and Matt got an entire ITS sequence through a lot of careful hand editing, and it is a great match to almost 100 EU sequences (averaging a couple of indels as the only differences). The DNA was also found in Alaska so it could be widespread around the area, just rare. Lactarius theiogalus is the older name, but nobody is sure what mushroom that refers to (this is only one possibility) so that name won't be used any more and the newer name L. tabidus, which is well defined, is replacing its use here. Lactarius neotabidus MI - previously only known from the east coast, we had one surprise sequence from Idaho that matches several east coast sequences (but we don't have a type sequence to prove it). Our ID collections are papillate with strongly decurrent gills, but a couple of east coast collections are not like that. It has been found with hardwoods like willow, cottonwood, aspen, and alder. Lactarius carbonicola MI - may be an older name for L. neotabidus, as it has a papillate cap and decurrent gills, so we need it's type sequence to find out. It has been reported from ID. Lactarius oculatus NY may be an even older name, as that mushroom is described similarly. Lactarius tabidus © Richard Morrison (2 images), L. neotabidus © Edward Barge
Lactarius alpinus NY var mitis ID - differentiated from the other small, orange candy cap relatives by a dry cap that may be finely cracked or scaly. It may also have an umbo. The taste is mild and it grows under alder. Described from Idaho, this variety appears to be a distinct species in the Piperites in need of a new name, and not a variety of L. alpinus, as specimens from other places in the Rockies (Montana and Colorado) provided by Cathy Cripps have DNA that is quite different than var alpinus. Lactarius alpinus NY var alpinus NY - The type variety is acrid tasting. It is said to occur here but so far the DNA has only been found in Newfoundland, Europe and Alaska. We really need examples of both of these to figure out what they are and how to identify them confidently. These are probably the least understood candy cap relatives. unsequenced Lactarius alpinus var. mitis from Oregon © Edward Barge
Other Russularias These species look different enough from the candy cap that they are easier to identify and harder to confuse with the candy cap.
Lactarius occidentalis WA - This alder species has a dry, dull brown to perhaps olive-brown cap, without orange tones, but is somewhat orange on the stem. It has a mild taste. Described from Washington. It is probably most easily confused with the rarer Lactarius tabidus, above, with brighter colours, and L. badiosanguineus, below, sometimes even darker. Lactarius badiosanguineus MT (=L. atrobadius OR) - this mild tasting alder species sometimes has a distinct blackish-reddish-orange cap (in its typical form) but other times a brighter reddish-orange cap (like a mild tasting L. substriatus or L. luculentus), making it a candy cap lookalike. It appears that Hesler and Smith had not heard of L. badiosanguineus and called dry capped inland collections of L. badiosanguineus by the EU name L. hepaticus. When they found viscid capped collections in the wetter coastal areas, they redescribed it as L. atrobadius. The OR type sequence of L. atrobadius and MT type area sequences of L. badiosanguineus are practically identical. Locally, it has been sequenced from boreal BC, OR, and ID. Lactarius hepaticus EU - This European conifer species has been rarely reported locally (mostly in Idaho), but those reports are probably collections of L. badiosanguineus. It has a dry cap and slightly acrid taste, with milk that slowly stains yellow. I doubt it's actually present here. Lactarius lepidotus WA is a similar (perhaps in the Piperites and not in the Russularia) drab little grey-brown mushroom found only at Mt. Rainier under alder so far. It has a scaly cap. We need collections to analyze. Lactarius occidentalis © Danny Miller, L. badiosanguineus © Edward Barge (2 images)
Lactarius rufus EU - This European conifer species can get larger than most other species, is a brick reddish colour, but most importantly is exceedingly hot tasting and can be identified on that basis alone, if you're brave enough to try it. Lactarius rufus © Steve Trudell
Lactarius xanthogalactus CA - This large Lactarius doesn't look like it belongs in this clade, so it is also keyed out under the "milk that turns yellow" group, but it appears to be related. It has an orange cap, a white stem and white milk that rapidly turns yellow. It can taste somewhat bitter or acrid. It has mistakenly been called L. chrysorheus and L. vinaceorufescens. It's a southern species from California also found in Oregon (locally common there, but rare elsewhere), under oak and Doug fir and in mixed forests. Lactarius xanthogalactus © Danny Miller
Two small Lactarius may resemble the Russularia, but are actually in the Piperites: L. glyciosmus (grey birch species that smells like coconut) and L. pseudomucidus (dark grey cap and stem contrasted with white gills, very slimy everywhere). |
![]() Members of this subgenus have velvety caps. The most common and obvious ones are very velvety dark brown mushrooms. Rarely, we find a minutely velvety pale capped mushroom in this subgenus. Species mentioned: Lactarius fallax, fallax var. concolor, pallidiolivaceus, fumosus var. occidentalis Lactarius fallax WA - Mostly mild tasting with a beautiful brown velvety, suede cap. The varieties are not separable by DNA (by the presence or absence of marginate gills), so var concolor and var fallax (both described from Oregon) have no genetic difference in ITS. Perhaps they are only forms of each other. The types of both varieties have identical ITS sequences. Lactarius fallax has been verified from BC, WA and ID. Lactarius fallax PNW03 - There is a sister species that also can have either pale or coloured gill edges, found in WA and CA. We don't know how to tell the two species apart yet. One attempt to separate them by colour failed (both dark chocolate and milk chocolate collections were the real L. fallax). Perhaps this sister species is papillate, but we only have 1 photographed collection. We need more papillate collections. Lactarius fallax © Steve Ness, L. 'fallax PNW03' © Daniel Winkler
Lactarius pallidiolivaceus OR - A species described from Southern Oregon under pine, but it's also found in California with other trees. It is in this subgenus, because if you look closely, the cap is minutely velvety under a hand lens. It is pale orange-olive-grey with a very tough stem and scanty milk that stains tissues dark. Most collections are mild tasting but one was very acrid (perhaps it was misidentified). This was originally described as a variety of Lactarius fumosus, Lactarius fumosus var. occidentalis, which it is indeed fairly closely related to. We have that type sequence. It was subsequently elevated to its own species. Lactarius pallidiolivaceus © Christian Schwarz |
This is the largest clade, so I will break them up into smaller groups. Most of them are at least somewhat peppery tasting (and most peppery species are in this clade).
![]() Within 10 seconds or so, the milk of these species will turn from white to yellow before your eyes, as shown above. Species mentioned: Lactarius scrobiculatus var. canadensis, payettensis, resimus, resimus var. regalis, xanthogalactus
Lactarius scrobiculatus EU complex - yellow with a bearded cap margin and yellow scrobiculate stalk. Originally called Lactarius payettensis var. canadensis, it was quickly moved to be a variety of L. scrobiculatus. But that leaves the mystery of what the Idaho species Lactarius payettensis var. payettensis is. We don't really know what to call this abundant species. DNA of what appears to be the type variety is found in Europe and ENA. DNA matching whatever our variety is is found in ENA, WNA and also Europe. There is a var. canadensis from PQ and a var. montanus from CA, and we assume that ours is var. canadensis, but we don't know that for sure. Perhaps var. canadensis is the same as the type variety as that is found back east as well, implying that ours is var. montanus. Also, our sequences are different enough to probably justify needing a species level name, as several species including L. alnicola are even closer genetically to the type variety than our variety. unsequenced Lactarius scrobiculatus var. canadensis? © Steve Trudell
Lactarius resimus EU - This mixed forest European species is whitish capped, with a bearded margin and somewhat scrobiculate stalk. DNA matching that from Europe has been found in BC so far. It, and its variety var regalis with larger spores have been reported elsewhere around the PNW but we don't know if the variety has distinct DNA or not. Lactarius 'resimus PNW08' - an unamed sister species under pine has been found and sequenced from OR and AZ. Other unique sequences have also been found but not much is known about them yet. Lactarius alnicola is a related yellow capped mixed forest species, but its milk does not quickly turn yellow, so it will be described later. Lactarius 'resimus PNW08' © Jonathan Frank (2 images)
Lactarius xanthogalactus CA - This species described from mixed forests in California (especially Doug fir and oak) is probably in clade Russularia (it has no bearding nor scrobiculation) but has an orange cap and a white stalk. It also occurs in Oregon, locally common, but rare elsewhere. Lactarius xanthogalactus © Danny Miller
There are isolated, unconfirmed sequences of local DNA of related species so we probably don't know the whole picture yet. |
![]() This reaction may take a few minutes, but the milk will stain the mushroom's own tissues purple. The milk itself doesn't turn purple, nor will the milk turn anything purple except other parts of itself. Most, except for L. representaneous and L. cascadensis appear to form a clade of related species. The other two are of unclear affiliation. Species mentioned: Lactarius pallescens, californiensis, montanus, cascadensis, cordovaensis, aspideus, aspideoides, salicis-reticulatae, pallidomarginatus, representaneus
Lactarius pallescens ID - This conifer species, described from Idaho, is white and KOH will turn the flesh yellow. The stem is rather viscid. Lactarius montanus ID - This conifer species, also described from Idaho, has a more greyish cap, sometimes with orange or lilac tints. KOH turns the cap green. ITS DNA between BC and CO can differ by up to 6bp, so it's possible this is a species complex. Lactarius californiensis CA - A southern species from OR and CA with similar colours to L. montanus (greyish-orange) but with the yellow KOH reaction of the white L. pallescens (which it is more closely related to, not to L. montanus). We have DNA from OR that most likely represents this. Lactarius pallescens © Michael Beug, L. montanus © A and O Ceska, L. californiensis © Jonathan Frank
Lactarius cordovaensis AK (=Lactarius cascadensis OR) - L. cascadensis was described from Oregon and also collected in WA and ID more than 50 years ago and never photographed in colour (or at all since 1946?) until now, it has a lilac grey/cinnamon cap that is zoned. It is large, with gills the colour of the cap and a mild taste found under alder. It has watery-white latex that stains tissues pink/purple and a scrobiculate stem. We had the ITS1 sequence of the type collection, but not ITS2, but now these modern collections provide some of ITS2. It is closely related to the purple stainer L. representaneus, but not the other purple stainers. Our modern sequences are 2 chunks of 2 bp different than the type sequence. However, sequences of L. cordovaensis from Alaska have identical sequences to our modern WA sequences, so the two species may be the same. They were described in the same publication, with L. cordovaensis a few pages earlier, if that matters. According to Smith, who described them both, L. cordovaensis has a viscous milk-white latex (as opposed to whey-like), an odor somewhat resembling that of L. camphoratus when dried, orange-tan gills which become paler in age (as opposed to cinnamon-buff), and slightly smaller spores. In the key, he differentiates the two by saying L. cordovaensis has a thicker ixocutis. These are not big differences. Our WA collection had thick milk like L. cordovaensis but larger spores like L. cascadensis. Since we found a collection with some characters of each, I think the two species are the same and if so, the name L. cordovaensis is in more common usage and may win out as the official name. Lactarius cascadensis © Michael Beug
Lactarius aspideoides VT - this group of purple staining species is recognized by a yellow cap with a smooth, unbearded margin and non-scrobiculate stem. This east coast mixed forest species has a viscid stem. One WA collection has an ITS sequence 4 bp different from both L. aspideoides and L. salicis-reticulatae, but not being from alpine willow, it best matches L. aspideoides. Lactarius salicis-reticulatae EU - a very similar (if not identical) alpine willow species, with ITS DNA extremely close to L. aspideoides (just a couple differences). It was the only species of this group verified in a study from the west (from Wyoming). Either this is a newer synonym of L. aspideoides, or the 2 cannot be differentiated by ITS, or PNW collections are yet another distinct species without a name yet. Probably, our collections should be called L. aspideoides. Lactarius aspideus EU/pallidomarginatus CO - The very similar (but with a dryer stem) European L. aspideus has been reported from here and the almost genetically identical L. pallidomarginatus has been described from Colorado. No proof from the PNW yet of either. Lactarius aspideoides © Danny Miller
Lactarius representaneus EU - This European conifer species is also yellow, but it is bearded with a scrobiculate stem. DNA has been found in WA so far, and it's reported from elsewhere in the PNW. It does not reliably appear in the same clade as the others, which makes it interesting that it is the only bearded species. Lactarius representaneus © Ian Gibson |
![]() Species mentioned: Lactarius glyciosmus, pseudomucidus, occidentalis, lepidotus, alpinus var. mitis, controversus, pseudodeceptivus, argillaceifolius var. megacarpus, kauffmanii, kauffmanii var. sitchensis, mucidus, caespitosus, glutigriseus, affinis, trivialis, flexuosus, pseudoflexuosus, circellatus var. borealis, rufus, hysginus, necator, turpis, olivaceoumbrinus, sordidus, pubescens var. betulae, scoticus, torminosus var. nordmanensis, subvillosus, olympianus, zonarioides, alnicola, payettensis, vietus
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Lactifluus
This is a separate genus now, of mainly tropical species. We don't have any confirmed species in the PNW, although the European Lactifluus volemus has been rumoured from far northern Alberta and BC. It is big and orange with a dry, minutely velvety cap and a fishy odor.
Deliciosi Figure out how many species we have in the Lactarius deliciosus group, and give them names. Russularia Figure out the L. substriatus complex and which is the real one, and verify it is the same as L. subflammeus. Name our L. luculentus var. 'laetus' if it is in fact distinct from the real thing. Get official sequences of L. alpinus and its varieties. See if L. hepaticus actually occurs in the PNW. Plinthogalus Figure out how to tell the two species of L. fallax apart Piperites Get sequences of L. carbonicola and L. lepidotus Verify what sequences of L. alnicola and L. resimus are and document the unnamed species sequences in this group. Figure out which species are in the PNW of the L. aspideus group (L. aspideoides? L. pallidomarginatus?) Figure out if we have an additional sister species of L. glyciosmus. Get sequences of L. sordidus and figure out if it's here. Figure out if the varieties of L. pubescens and L. torminosus are distinct, and if we have a third species. Determine if we have L. hysginus and what it is and how many varieties we have. Get sequences and specimens of L. payettensis Figure out what L. pseudodeceptivus is. Sort out L. mucidus and its varieties, L. caespitosus and L. glutigriseus and see if we have additional species. Figure out if there are additional species in the L. affinis/L. trivialis complex. |