A large, white to tan milk cap with a thick, soft, cottony inrolled margin. The cap surface breaks into patches or scales with age. Its white latex is strongly acrid. It is one of the most abundant late-summer mushrooms in parts of eastern North America.
Not recommended. Strongly acrid raw. Peck reported eating it without ill effect, and thorough cooking reportedly removes the bitterness, but Hesler and Smith called it undesirable and indigestible, and some guides list it as inedible.
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Habitat
Mycorrhizal with conifers, especially hemlock, and hardwoods, especially oaks; also in bogs, at the edges of woodland pools, and in oak stands with blueberry understory. Scattered or in dense groups, June to October.
Distribution
Widespread in eastern North America east of the Rocky Mountains, with reports from southern and western Canada; also reported from Mexico and Costa Rica.
Characteristics
Cap: 8-16 cm, occasionally to 30 cm, convex with a central depression, becoming flat or vase-shaped; dry, bald at first, then roughening and breaking into patches or scales; margin soft, cottony and inrolled; white, later tan to brownish. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, close to nearly distant, occasionally forked, whitish to cream, becoming dingy tan and staining brownish. Stem: 3-9 cm long, 1-4 cm thick, hard, dry, whitish discoloring tan, without pits. Flesh: firm, white. Latex: white, unchanging, sometimes staining tissues brownish. Taste: strongly acrid. Odor: mild or pungent at maturity. KOH: reddish on the cap. Spore print: white to buff. Spores: 9-13 x 7-9 µm, broadly ellipsoid, with isolated amyloid warts 0.5-1.5 µm high, not reticulate.
