A large, slimy, yellow to orange-yellow milk cap of northern and mountain spruce forests. The margin is bearded with hairs when young, and the stem is pitted. Its copious white latex stains all tissues lilac to purple.
Poisonous. Eating it causes stomach upset; the toxic compounds have not been identified. Do not eat.
Never eat a wild mushroom based on a web page — confirm with an expert.
Habitat
Mycorrhizal; in North America with spruce (Engelmann spruce in the southern Rockies), scattered or in groups, summer and fall. In Europe mainly under goat willow (Salix caprea) on non-calcareous soils; also recorded under birch in Greenland.
Distribution
Temperate and boreal Northern Hemisphere. In North America, occasional to fairly common in northern and montane regions, including Alaska, the Rocky Mountains and California. In Europe it is fairly rare. MushroomExpert.com notes it is unknown whether North American material is the same species as the European one.
Characteristics
Cap: 4-18 cm, convex with an incurved margin, becoming flat, depressed or broadly funnel-shaped; slimy when fresh, hairy, especially at the margin, which is bearded when young; pale to dark yellow or orangish yellow, usually unzoned; often bruising lilac to purple. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, close, sometimes forked, whitish becoming yellowish to pale ochre, stained lilac to purple where damaged. Stem: 3-12 cm long, 1-3 cm thick, equal or slightly clavate, slimy when fresh, often coarsely pitted, whitish to pale yellowish, bruising lilac to purple, becoming hollow. Flesh: white, turning lilac when cut. Latex: copious, white to cream, unchanging in air but staining tissues lilac to purple. Odor: faintly fragrant when fresh, soapy when dried. Taste: bitter to acrid, sometimes mild. KOH: red on the cap. Spore print: cream to yellowish. Spores: 8-12 x 6.5-9 µm, broadly ellipsoid, warty and ridged, not reticulate, amyloid (Wikipedia); one Colorado/California collection measured 6.5-8 x 5.5-7 µm (MushroomExpert.com).
