A pale salmon to pinkish-cinnamon oak milk cap whose white latex turns sulphur yellow within seconds of exposure to air. It has a smooth stem without pits. The taste is hot and acrid.
Mycorrhizal with oaks, and possibly other hardwoods in North America; summer and autumn. In Europe almost always with oak on acid soils.
Distribution
Widespread in Europe from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, including Britain and Ireland, and in North Africa. In North America, found from the Great Plains eastward wherever oaks grow; MushroomExpert.com treats this as the North American version of the European species.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-10 cm, broadly convex with an inrolled margin, becoming shallowly depressed or vase-shaped; moist or dry, pale pinkish to pale cinnamon or salmon, often with faint darker concentric zones. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, close to crowded, whitish to pale yellowish or pinkish buff, not developing reddish spots. Stem: 3-8 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, more or less equal, dry, whitish to buff, smooth, without potholes. Flesh: white, turning yellow when cut. Latex: copious, white, turning bright sulphur yellow within about 5-15 seconds. Taste: acrid. Odor: not distinctive. Spore print: creamy white with a salmon tinge to yellowish. Spores: 6-9 x 5.5-6.5 µm in North American material (MushroomExpert.com); 7-8.5 x 6-6.5 µm in European material (First Nature).
