A slimy, carrot-orange milk cap of northern white cedar bogs and conifer forests with concentrically zoned orange bands. Its orange latex slowly stains tissues red. Unlike Lactarius deliciosus and its relatives, it does not bruise green.
Reported edible by foragers, and it belongs to the orange-latex L. deliciosus group, but few sources document its edibility. Eat only with expert confirmation. Check for orange latex slowly staining red and no green bruising. Milk caps with white, acrid latex are a different group. Orange mushrooms without latex, such as the jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens, a gastrointestinal poison that grows in clusters on wood), are unrelated.
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Habitat
Mycorrhizal with conifers, usually northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), in cedar bogs; also reported near balsam fir, spruce and white pine. Scattered or in groups, summer and fall.
Distribution
Northeastern North America, including the northeastern United States, eastern Canada and the upper Great Lakes region.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-9 cm, convex becoming flat, shallowly depressed or vase-shaped; slimy when fresh, smooth; zoned with carrot orange and paler orange. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, close to nearly distant, orange, bruising brownish. Stem: 4-8 cm long, 1.5-2 cm thick, orange, equal or slightly tapered, smooth, hollow, slimy when young, often with a whitish sheen above and sometimes shallow potholes; may bruise dull red or brownish. Flesh: thin, white to orangish. Latex: orange, unchanging, slowly staining tissues red. Taste: mild. Odor: faintly fragrant. KOH: negative on the cap. Spore print: whitish to pale yellow. Spores: 9-12 x 7.5-9 µm, broadly ellipsoid to nearly globose, with amyloid warts and ridges forming partial reticula.
