Summary:
Features include 1) a slightly viscid, somewhat hygrophanous, dark vinaceous brown or reddish brown cap, 2) white milk that changes to olive-gray and stains gills olive-gray to grayish brown, 3) very pale pinkish fawn gills, 4) a dry stem that is cap-colored but paler, 5) a peppery taste, 6) growth on wood in areas where birch grows, 7) a white to cream spore deposit, and 8) microscopic characters including elliptic spores with amyloid ornamentation of small warts and short bands and lines not forming more than a partial reticulum. Hesler''s description here is for an Idaho collection.

Gills:
broadly adnate to decurrent, close at maturity, rarely subdistant, 3-4 tiers of subgills, gills becoming moderately broad; very pale dingy "pinkish buff" ''spotting grayish to olive-gray or brownish where cut'', (Hesler), "broadly adnate to decurrent, close, moderately broad, several layers"; very pale pinkish fawn, spotting grayish or brownish when cut, (Phillips)

Stem:
3-6cm x 0.8-1.8cm, equal, fragile; paler than cap and not darkening in lower part; dry, bald, (Hesler), 3-6cm x 0.8-1.8cm, fragile; similarly colored to cap but paler; dry, bald, (Phillips)

Veil:
[none]

Odor:
slight (Hesler, Phillips)

Taste:
peppery (Hesler, Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7.5-9 x 6-7.5 microns, elliptic to broadly elliptic, ornamentation [amyloid] "in the form of short bands and lines with some isolated warts not forming more than a partial reticulum", prominences of ornamentation 0.2-0.4 microns high; basidia 4-spored, 36-42 x 8-11 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia: macrocystidia 45-75(86) x 5-10 microns, lanceolate-pointed to narrowly fusoid, content refractive, pseudocystidia scattered, filamentous; cheilocystidia 37-52 x 4.5-7 microns, lanceolate to fusoid, acute, (Hesler), spores 6.8-8.9 x 5.2-6.4 microns, elliptic, amyloid, "ornamented with very small warts and some connecting lines but only forming a partial reticulum", prominences 0.1-0.3 microns high, (Phillips)

Spore deposit:
white to cream (Hesler, Phillips)

Notes:
Material was cited from ID, NS, ON, QC, AK, CO, MA, ME, MI, NC, NY, WI, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, (Hesler). A DNA sequence from BC matches material identified elsewhere as this species (D. Miller, pers. comm.)

EDIBILITY

no (Phillips)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Lactarius parvus Peck