Curry Milkcap
It’s fairly easy to identify milkcaps as a genus but it can be hard to identify to species as quite a few look similar but with it’s clear milk with cloudy bits and the eventual smell of curry you can be sure you have found the correct mushroom.
Scientific Name – Lactarius camphoratus
Common Names:
Curry Milkcap (EN), Curry Scented Milkcap, , Cap Llaeth Cyri (CY), Mleczaj Kamforowy (PL), Kámfor-Tejelőgomba (HU)
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Cap
3-6 cm. Dark red to brown with edges that curl over slightly until the cap flattens out. The middle can be darker with a central depression and a persistent umbo.
Gills
Pinkish off white to tan darkening with age, slightly running down the stem to notched (decurrent to adnate) and fairly crowded.
Milk
The milk is clear with cloudy bits and does not change colour when dry. When tasting the milk it should be mild or possibly a bit sweet, not bitter or too acrid.
Stem
3-7 cm long, 0.5-1 cm diameter. Similar in colour to the cap darkening towards the base and very brittle.
Flesh
Similar to the cap colour with white marks, can be hollow.
Habitat
In acid soil in either coniferous or deciduous woodland.
Possible Confusion
Other Milkcaps but with the milk being clear with cloudy bits and the eventual smell of curry you should avoid confusion.
Other Facts
The generic name Lactarius means producing milk (lactating) – a reference to the milky latex that is exuded from the gills of milkcap fungi when they are cut or torn. The specific epithet camphoratus is a reference to the distinctive smell of this milkcap mushroom, which at the time its basionym was selected was considered to be like camphor – originally made from the sap of camphor trees and in the past used not only as a moth repellent but also in the manufacture of fireworks. (Nowadays most people in Western Europe are probably much more familiar with the smell of curry than of mothballs!) When dried, caps of the Curry Milkcap off a strong odour reminiscent of curry – the reason for common name for this pine-forest fungus, which is referred to in North America as the Candy Cap.
