Everything about Lactarius Deliciosus totally explained
Lactarius deliciosus, known as the
Saffron milk cap,
Red pine mushroom is the one of the best known members of the large milk-cap genus
Lactarius in the order
Russulales. It is found in Europe and North America and has been accidentally introduced to other countries under conifers and can be found growing in pine plantations.
In the
Girona area this type of mushroom is called a "pinatell" because it's collected near wild
pine trees; typically they're harvested in October following the late August rain. Due to its scarcity it commands high prices.
A fresco in the Roman town of
Herculaneum appears to depict
Lactarius deliciosus and is one of the earliest pieces of art to illustrate a fungus.
When grown in liquid culture, the mycelium of this fungus produces
Anofinic acid,
chroman-4-one,
3-hydroxyacetylindole, cyclic
dipeptides,
ergosterol, and a mixture of
fatty acids.
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Taxonomy
This was known to
Linnaeus who officially described it in Volume Two of his
Species Plantarum in 1753, giving it the name
Agaricus deliciosus, the specific epithet deriving from
Latin deliciosus meaning "tasty". The Swedish taxonomist allegedly gave the species its epithet after smelling it and presuming it tasted as good as a Mediterranean milk cap highly regarded for its flavor. Dutch mycologist
Christian Hendrik Persoon added the varietal epithet
lactifluus in 1801, before English mycologist
Samuel Frederick Gray placed it in its current genus
Lactarius in 1821 in his
The Natural Arrangement of British Plants.
It is commonly known as saffron milk-cap, red pine mushroom, or simply pine mushroom in English. Its
Catalan name is
Rovelló or
Rovellons. Both this and
Lactarius deterrimus are known as Çam melkisi or Çintar in Turkey.
Description
Lactarius deliciosus has a carrot orange cap which is convex to vase shaped, inrolled when young, 4 to 14 cm across, often with darker orange lines in the form of concentric circles. The cap is sticky and viscid when wet, but is often dry. It has crowded decurrent gills and a squat orange stipe which is often hollow, 3 to 8 cm long and 1 to 2 cm thick. This mushroom stains a deep green color when handled. When fresh, the mushroom exudes an orange-red latex or "milk" that doesn't change color.
This mushroom is often confused with
Lactarius rubidus which stains green, has red latex, and is also edible.
Distribution and habitat
Lactarius deliciosus grows under the acidic soil of
conifers and forms a mycorrhizal relationship with its host tree. It is native to the southern
Pyrenees where it grows under Mediterranean pines. Both this fungus and
L. deterrimus are collected and sold in the
İzmir Province of southwestern Turkey, and the
Antalya Province of the south coast. One recipe recommends they should be lightly washed, fried whole cap down in olive oil with a small amount of
garlic and served drenched in raw
olive oil and
parsley. The same recipe advised that
butter should never be used when cooking this mushroom.
Further north and east it's a feature of
Provençal cuisine.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Lactarius Deliciosus'.
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