Lactarius aspideus (FL: Fr.) Fr.

Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, Annemieke Verbeken & Jan Vesterholt, 1998, The Genus Lactarius, Copenhagen: Danish Mycological Society : 96

Lactarius aspideus (FL: Fr.) Fr.

Agaricus aspideus Fr.: Fr., 1821 : 63; Lactarius aspideus (Fr.: Fr.) Fr., 1838 : 336. Type: Not selected; described from Sweden.

EXCLUDED: Lactarius aspideus ss. Konrad & Maublanc (= L. flavidus ).

A small to medium-sized, lilac staining Lactarius wiiln a viscid, straw-yellow to pale cream cap; cap margin finely velutinous in young specimens; growing with Salix .

DESCRIPTION: Cap 10-70 mm, at first convex with inrolled margin and slightly depressed centre, then applanate; surface smooth, at margin finely velutinous in young specimens and finely crenulate in older specimens, shiny, viscid to sticky, later almost dry, usually azonate but sometimes with one or a few zones, straw-yellow to pale chrome or pale cream, sometimes with brownish grey watery spots in older specimens, sometimes with lilac tinges. Gills broadly adnate to decurrent, rather narrow, fairly crowded to crowded, rarely forked, whitish chrome to pale cream or cream, turning greyish lilac when bruised. Stem 10-65 X 5-17 mm, cylindric to clavate; surface smooth, greasy, pale straw-yellow to pale cream, not pitted but sometimes with darker yellowish spots, turning greyish lilac when bruised. Flesh rather fragile, solid in the stem, white, slowly turning greyish lilac to pale lilaceous grey when cut, but lilaceous colours disappearing after some hours; smell weak, slightly fruity; taste mild, then becoming bitter. Milk rather abundant, white, unchanging when isolated from the flesh, but drying greyish lilac; taste mild, then bitter and aromatic. Spore deposit pale

spores 6.7-9.5 X 5.6-7.8 um, av. 7.8-8.8 X 6.3-7.4 um, subglobose no ellipsoid, Q = 1.05-1.35, av. 1.18-1.24; ornamentation up to 0.5 um high, completely or almost completely reticulate, in a somewhat zebra-like pattern, often with seemingly fissured ridges; isolated warts very rare; plage sometimes slightly amyloid in the distal part. Basidia 35-40 X 9-11 um, cylindric to subclavate, (2- or) 4-spored. Pleuromacrocystidia abundant, fusiform with a moniliform or mucronate apex, 40-65 (~85) x 6-10 um, thin-walled. Gill edge sterile; cheilomacrocysticlia 30-40 x 6-8 um, fusiform to irregularly cylindric, with a moniliform apex; paracystidia 10-25 X 3-6 um, cylindric to subclavate, hyaline and thin-Walled. Pileipellis an ixocutis, 40-70 um thick; hyphae 2-4 um broad, hyaline, repent or slightly ascending.

ECOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION: Found from the end of June to October with Salix in grass or on naked soil in humid localities, often at lake shores. It is Widely distributed but rather uncommon throughout the area.