The stem is equal, smooth, one to two inches long, stuffed, central or slightly eccentric, rooted at the base.
The form of these plants is quite constant and the round white caps will at first suggest a Collybia. The white gills and its decurrent form will distinguish it from P. lignatilis. It makes quite a delicious dish when well cooked. I found some beautiful specimens on a decayed beech log in Poke Hollow. Found in September and October.
Lactarius. Fr.
Lactarius means pertaining to milk. There is one feature of this genus that should easily mark it, the presence of milky or colored juice which exudes from a wound or a broken place on a fresh plant. This feature alone is sufficient to distinguish the genus but there are other points that serve to make the determination more certain.
The flesh, although it seems quite solid and firm, is very brittle. The fracture is always even, clean cut, and not ragged as in more fibrous substances.
The plants are fleshy and stout, and in this particular resemble the Clitocybes, but the brittleness of the flesh, milky juice, and the marking of the cap, will easily distinguish them.
Many species have a very acrid or peppery flavor. If a person tastes one when raw, he will not soon forget it. This acridity is usually lost in cooking.
The pileus in all species is fleshy, becoming more or less depressed, margin at first involute, often marked with concentric zones.
The stem is stout, often hollow when old, confluent with the cap.
The gills are usually unequal, edge acute, decurrent or adnate, milky; in nearly all the species the milk is white, changing to a sulphur yellow, red, or violet, on exposure to the air.