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Species Information
Summary: Subgenus Russularia. Features include 1) a bright orange, slightly viscid cap, 2) milk-white unchanging milk that may slowly stain gills brown, 3) crowded, narrow, pale orange gills, 4) a stem colored as gills or cap, 5) a mild taste that may slowly become bitter, 6) growth preference under Sitka spruce, 7) broadly elliptic spores with amyloid ornamentation consisting of a partial reticulum with isolated warts and short ridges, and 8) a cap cuticle consisting of a lax ixotrichoderm arising from an interwoven layer of filamentous hyphae with scattered inflated cells. Lactarius luculentus var. ''laetus'' is more common in the Pacific Northwest than Lactarius luculentus var. luculentus. The reason that the variety name is in single quotation marks is that the DNA of some collections identified as this variety from BC, WA, and OR does not match material identified as var. laetus from the type area in Colorado (D. Miller, pers. comm.).
Material of Lactarius luculentus var. laetus was cited with the type description from WA and CO, (Hesler). It has been found in CA (Methven). There are collections from BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre and the University of British Columbia.
Gills: crowded, narrow, +/- 4 tiers of subgills; pale reddish clay, sometimes slowly staining brownish, (Hesler), adnate to subdecurrent, close to subdistant, narrow, forked near stem; pale orange, unstaining where cut, edges colored as faces, (Methven)
Stem: 4-5cm x 0.5-0.7cm, equal or widened slightly in lower part, hollow, firm becoming fragile; colored as gills or cap; smooth, (Hesler), 2-6cm x 0.3-0.8cm, equal or slightly club-shaped, round in cross-section, solid to hollow; light orange to grayish orange, with white to pale orange tomentum at base; dry, bald, fibrillose-streaked, (Methven)
Odor: not distinctive (Methven)
Taste: mild, but slowly becoming bitter (Hesler), not distinctive (Methven), mild to slightly bitter (Siegel)
Microscopic spores: spores 8-10 x 7-8.5 microns, broadly elliptic, [amyloid] ornamentation "of a few prominent bands with Y-branching but no reticulum formed, isolated warts and short ridges present", prominences about 0.4-0.7 microns high; basidia 4-spored, 8-12 microns broad, "many with refractive content as revived in KOH"; pleurocystidia: macrocystidia 56-90 x 9-14 microns, prominently projecting, "fusoid-ventricose and pointed to sharply fusoid, content not highly refractive in KOH", pseudocystidia not seen, cheilocystidia "basidiole-like to fusoid-ventricose with obtuse apex (none seen resembling macrocystidia)"; gill trama "lacking distinct rosettes but sphaerocysts present", lactifers inconspicuous in KOH; cap trama heteromerous, lactifers inconspicuous; cap cuticle "a well-developed to a shortened, lax trichoderm showing slime in KOH" and in Melzer''s reagent, "the layer originating from a basal hyphal layer in which some of the cells are inflated but these not forming a distinct layer and not evident in many sections", (Hesler), spores 7-9 x 5.5-7 microns, broadly elliptic, amyloid ornamentation a partial reticulum 0.5-1.0 microns high; basidia 30-45 x 7.5-10.5 microns; macrocystidia 60-90 x 6-9 microns, subcylindric, cheilocystidia 35-55 x 6-9 microns, subcylindric; cap cuticle a lax ixotrichoderm "arising from an interwoven layer of filamentous hyphae with scattered inflated cells"; stem cuticle a simple cutis, (Methven)
Spore deposit: white (Methven)
Habitat / Range
gregarious under conifers and mountain alder, (Hesler), scattered to gregarious in duff, in coastal coniferous-hardwood forests in association with Picea sitchensis (Sitka spruce), September to November, (Methven for CA), fall
Similar Species
Lactarius luculentus var. luculentus has a duller color (ochraceous-tawny to ochraceous buff), a peppery taste, and a buff spore deposit, (Methven). Lactarius subflammeus has a slowly slightly peppery taste and the cap cuticle is a modified ixotrichoderm in which basal cells are inflated and produce a cellular layer, (Methven). L. subflammeus has a moist to subviscid cap and tastes acrid (peppery) (Siegel(2)). Lactarius substriatus has white latex that changes to yellow or stains yellow, a slightly peppery taste, a pale yellow spore deposit, and a cap cuticle described similarly to L. luculentus var. laetus, (Methven). Lactarius substriatus is more reddish orange, has white latex that slowly dries to pale yellow, and tastes slightly acrid, (Siegel(2)). Lactarius subviscidus has white latex that slowly changes to yellow or stains yellow, a slowly peppery taste, and a cap cuticle in which a turf of short hyphal proliferations arise from a layer of vesiculose cells 2-4 cells thick, (Methven). L. subviscidus has a moist to subviscid cap that is dark orange, orange-red to orange-brown, and taste is acrid (Siegel(2)). Lactarius theiogalus has a moist cap that is ferruginous fading to orange-buff or dull rufous, white milk, usually staining yellow slowly, and a cellular cap cuticle. See also SIMILAR section of Lactarius hepaticus.
