Edible. Cooke. Eaten in France and held in estimation.
L. theio´galus Fr. Gr—brimstone; milk. Pileus 2–5 in. broad, fleshy, thin, convex, then depressed, even, glabrous, viscid, tawny-reddish. Lamellæ adnate or decurrent, close, pallid or reddish. Stem 1–3 in. long, 4–10 lines thick, stuffed or hollow, even, colored like the pileus. Spores yellowish, inclining to pale flesh-color, subglobose, 7.5–9µ. Milk white, changing to sulphur-yellow, taste tardily acrid, bitterish.
Woods and groves. Common. July to October.
Our plant does not fully accord with the description of the species as given by Fries. Peck, 38th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores subglobose, 7–8µ diameter Massee; subglobose, 7.5–9µ Peck.
West Virginia, 1881–1885; Mt. Gretna, Pa. July, 1897; New Jersey, common in mixed woods. July to frost. McIlvaine.
L. theiogalus possesses all the good qualities of the hot milk species. While I ate it whenever I chose in West Virginia, I did not again eat it until 1897 at Mt. Gretna. There several partook of it and thought it rather coarse, but of good flavor. It requires long cooking.
L. fuligino´sus Fr.—fuligo, soot. Pileus 1–2.5 in. broad, firm, becoming soft, convex plane or slightly depressed, even, dry, zoneless, dingy ash-color or buff-gray, appearing as if covered with a dingy pruinosity, the margin sometimes wavy or lobed. Gills adnate or subdecurrent, subdistant, whitish then yellowish, becoming stained with pink-red or salmon-color where wounded. Stem 1–2 in. long, 3–5 lines thick, equal or slightly tapering downward, firm, stuffed, colored like the pileus. Spores globose, yellowish, 7.5–10µ. Milk white, taste tardily and sometimes slightly acrid.
Thin woods and open grassy places. Greenbush and Sandlake, N.Y. July and August. Peck, 38th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
A form with the pileus colored like that of L. lignyotus, but with the gills much closer than in that species, was found in a swamp near Sevey. July. Peck, 43d Rep.