Cap color

Cream

Cream, milky or ivory is a shade that mycology distinguishes from pure white. It's a warm, slightly yellowish or ochre color, very common in mushrooms that hide under a layer of leaves or needles.

24 species in the database.

Famous cream-colored mushrooms

Roger Phillips and M.Ya. Zerova describe several very important species for which a cream cap is characteristic:

1. Lactarius resimus: This mushroom is considered the "king of salted mushrooms" in Eastern Europe. Its massive, funnel-shaped cap with a fringed edge is dirty white, milky or cream. Watery concentric rings are often present on the surface. It forms a perfect mycorrhiza with birch.

2. St George's mushroom (Calocybe gambosa): A wonderful spring mushroom. It appears in May and has a firm, fleshy cap of a perfect cream color and an intense mealy (fresh) smell.

3. Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus): Some forms of oyster mushroom, grown commercially or in the light, can have a pale cream or beige cap (unlike wild oyster mushrooms, which are more often grey).

Fading nuances

David Arora stresses that cream is often not a mushroom's original color but the result of fading (bleaching) in the sun. For example, some yellow or light brown brittlegills can turn completely cream with age.

On the other hand, many poisonous white mushrooms (like the destroying angel or the white form of the death cap) can have a light cream or yellowish tint in the center of the cap, which only makes them harder for beginners to identify.

Questions and answers

Why is Lactarius resimus always dirty cream and covered in debris?

The cap of Lactarius resimus has a particular structure — it's very hairy, especially at the edges, and releases a small amount of sticky juice. Since these milk caps grow deep in the forest litter and literally push their way through a layer of fallen leaves and soil, forest debris sticks fast to their cream caps.

Can St George's mushroom be confused with a poisonous mushroom?

St George's mushroom grows very early in spring (May), when dangerous gilled mushrooms (death cap, amanitas, webcaps) aren't growing yet. This makes picking this cream mushroom relatively safe. However, it can be confused with the poisonous spring pinkgill (Entoloma vernum), which has a darker cap but grows at the same time. Go by the strong mealy smell of St George's mushroom.

Sources

1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
4.Index Fungorum