A dull orange to cinnamon-orange, finely velvety milk cap of eastern oak woods. It has widely spaced pale gills and copious mild white latex. It resembles the weeping milk cap (Lactifluus volemus) but has distant gills and lacks the fishy odor and brown staining.
Edible and regarded as good. Confirm copious white latex, mild taste and distant gills. Lactifluus volemus (also edible) has closer gills, brown-staining latex and a fishy odor. Orange mushrooms with no latex are not this species. The jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens, gastrointestinal toxin) grows in clusters on wood and has no latex. Taste a tiny raw piece and spit it out: acrid latex means a different milk cap.
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Habitat
Mycorrhizal with oaks and possibly other hardwoods; scattered or in groups on the ground, summer (June to September).
Distribution
Eastern North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from Texas and Kansas to the northeastern states.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-10 cm, convex becoming flat with a shallow depression or vase-shaped; dry, finely velvety, often with a whitish bloom; dull orange to cinnamon orange; margin even, slightly incurved at first. Gills: attached or slightly decurrent, distant, whitish becoming cream or pale yellowish, not staining or staining brownish. Stem: 3-5 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm thick, colored like the cap or paler, bald or very finely velvety, solid. Flesh: firm, white. Latex: copious, white, unchanging or slightly yellowish; stains white paper yellow overnight. Odor and taste: not distinctive. KOH: pale olive on the cap. Spore print: white. Spores: 7-9 x 5.5-7 µm, ellipsoid, ornamentation under 0.5 µm of isolated warts with scattered connectors.
