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Scientific Name: Lactarius deliciosus
other names: Red Pine Mushroom
AVAILABLE: NOV-APR
EDIBLE PARTS:
Saffron Milk Cups have a mycorrhizal relationship with Pinus brutia (Turkish Pine, Calabria Pine, Red Pine) forming a mutually beneficial association.
Pinus brutia grows 20–35 m tall. The bark is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk. The bright green-yellow leaves (needles) are in pairs, around 10–16 cm long.
Woolly Milkcap mushrooms (Lactarius torminosus) look very similar to Saffron Milk Cups and are not recommended to eat. The Latin name ‘torminosus’ means colic-inducing and some sources state it is poisonous.
They have a mycorrhizal relationship usually with trees in the Betulacae family: the Oriental alder – Σκλέδρος, Σκλήδρος (Alnus orientalis), the Common Hazelnut – Φουντούκι (Corylus avellana) and the Filbert Nut tree (Corylus maxima) but can appear near other tree species.
How to tell them apart:
| part | Saffron Milk Cup Lactarius deliciosus |
Woolly Milk Cap
Lactarius torminosus |
|---|---|---|
| cap colour | bright orange cap | dull pink, becoming orange to white near the edge |
| cap shape | convex when young but becomes flat or slightly depressed with age becoming funnel-shaped | convex when young but becomes flat or slightly depressed with age becoming funnel-shaped. The cap margin is strongly curled inward when young and covered with a thick matting of woolly hairs |
| cap size | 5-15cm | 2-12cm |
| cap markings | concentric rings of darker shade (a zonate pattern) that remain as it matures. | concentric rings of darker shade (a zonate pattern) that fade as it matures. |
| gill arrangement | forked, crowded and narrow | crowded and narrow, sometimes forked near the stem |
| gill colour | orange | light pink to tan |
| latex | orange to red that does not change colour and stains a green colour | white to cream that does not change colour nor does it stain the gills |
| stipe | pitted | bare |
