A pink-zoned milk cap of eastern hemlock forests with wine-red gills and scant deep red latex. Cap and gills bruise and spot green. Its colored latex and green staining make it one of the easier milk caps to recognize.
Edibility unconfirmed; not recommended. It belongs to the red- and orange-latex, green-staining group, which includes widely eaten species, but no source consulted confirms that this species is edible.
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Mycorrhizal with eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and perhaps other conifers; alone, scattered or in groups, summer and fall.
Distribution
Upper Midwest, Appalachians and northeastern North America.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-10 cm, convex becoming flat with a shallow depression or vase-shaped; dry or slightly sticky; zoned with vinaceous red and pale pink bands fading to pinkish buff, or spotted rather than zoned; bruising green. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, nearly distant, vinaceous red, holding their color longer than the cap, bruising and spotting green. Stem: 3-8 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm thick, equal, colored like the cap or paler, sometimes spotted or pitted, becoming hollow. Flesh: whitish to pink, staining red and eventually green. Latex: scant, deep red. Taste: mild to faintly peppery. Odor: not distinctive. KOH: negative on the cap. Spore print: pale cream. Spores: 8-12 x 6.5-9 µm, broadly ellipsoid, with amyloid lines and warts in zebra-like patterns, occasionally partly reticulate.
