Lactarius deliciosus, also known as Saffron Milkcap, is an attractive, fairly large, buff agaric with distinctive salmon-pink blotches, and pale carrot-coloured gills. The mushroom exudes carroty milk, which is a significant characteristic of this mushroom. It grows solitary or in scattered groups on soil under conifers, favouring pine trees.

Cap first round and bumpy, then convex and as mature flat with a depressed centre. The margin stays rolled in until maturity. It has concentrically zoned thin rings in orange and a somewhat wider zone in salmon go grey pink. Often with carrot-coloured patches. Sticky and slippery when wet. Gills at first apricot or saffron, becoming carrot, dull green on bruising, dense and sub-decurrent before abruptly ending. Stem similarly coloured as the cap, thick and hard but also fragile, more or less equal, and patterned with different-sized shallow holes in a darker shade. Spore print pale pinkish buff.

Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal, measuring 7-9 x 6-7 µm, and they have a well-defined and almost complete network of ridges.

Lactarius deliciosus on the First Nature Web site.
Lactarius "deliciosus" group on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.