Lactarius torminosus. Fr.
The Woolly Lactarius. Poisonous.
Figure 127.—Lactarius torminosus. Three-fourths natural size. Caps yellowish-red or ochraceous tinged with red, margin incurved.
Torminosus, full of grips, causing colic. The pileus is two to four inches broad, convex, then depressed, smooth, or nearly so, except the involute margin which is more or less shaggy, somewhat zoned, viscid when young and moist, yellowish-red or pale ochraceous, tinged with red.
The gills are thin, close, rather narrow, nearly of the same color as the pileus, but yellower and paler, slightly forked, subdecurrent.
The stem is one to two inches long, paler than the cap, equal or slightly tapering downward, stuffed or hollow, sometimes spotted, clothed with a very minute adpressed down.
The milk is white and very acrid. The spores are echinulate, subglobose, 9–1O×7–8µ.
This differs from L. cilicioides in its zoned pileus and white milk. Most authorities speak of it as dangerous. Captain McIlvaine speaks of the Russians as preserving it in salt and eating it seasoned with oil and vinegar. They grow in the woods, open places, and in fields. The specimens in Figure 127 were found in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer.