THIS DATA HAS NOT BEEN VERIFIED BY AN EXPERT. Use at your own risk.
Stumpy milkcapLactarius flexuosus
Also known as: Stumpy milk cap, Serushka
Passport
- Hymenophore
- Gilled
- Cap colour
- Grey
- Size
- Medium (5–15 cm)
✓ Conditionally edible
Most often confused with: Fenugreek milk cap (poisonous).
Quick answers
Where to look?
When does it appear? Europe
Description
The stumpy milkcap (Lactarius flexuosus) is listed as inedible by some Western European guides because its milk is fiercely hot, yet in Finland, Belarus and Russia it's eaten salted after soaking or parboiling. Raw or simply fried, it burns the mouth and can upset the stomach. In Russian it's known as serushka, and we treat it as conditionally edible: only ever salted, never fresh.
Several features together identify it. The cap is 5–10 cm across, grey, lilac-grey, pinkish grey or leaden, with a wavy, bent-looking margin, which is where the Latin name comes from. It's dry and matt, only slightly sticky in the rain. For a milkcap the gills are unusually widely spaced, thick, and cream to yellowish. A broken gill releases plenty of white milk that stays white in the air. The stem is short and stout, paler than the cap, with no ring.
Is it the same as the grey milkcap? No. In Britain the grey milkcap is Lactarius vietus, a smaller, thinner, sticky species with crowded gills, found under birch in damp places, whose milk dries grey on the gills. The northern milkcap, Lactarius trivialis, is slimy, has crowded gills and a hollow stem, and its milk turns yellowish. The fenugreek milkcap is brownish grey and velvety, with watery, clear milk and a strong smell of lovage, and it's poisonous raw. The beech milkcap is greenish grey and slimy, and its milk dries in olive spots. The coconut milkcap is small and smells of coconut. The ugly milkcap is olive-black and is never grey.
How is it prepared where people eat it? Pickers soak it in cold water, changing the water several times, or parboil it and throw the water away. Finnish mycologists advise boiling hot-tasting milkcaps for at least five minutes, sometimes longer, rinsing them in cold water and only then salting them. Guides give no exact soaking time for this species, and some heat remains even after long boiling, so it's rated a poor edible. If you develop nausea, vomiting or severe stomach pain after a mushroom meal, call 112 (999 in the UK) and say you ate wild mushrooms.
It fruits from midsummer to mid-autumn, most plentifully in late summer and early autumn, and it's gone before the frosts. It forms mycorrhiza with birch, spruce, pine and aspen and likes grassy or mossy ground: woodland edges, clearings, the verges of forest tracks and paths. It's a northern species, common in Scandinavia and also found in Britain, but patchy further south. In Ukraine only a few finds have been recorded, in the beech forests of the Crimean Mountains and the oak woods of Sumy region, most likely because it's rarely identified.
Cap
The cap is 5–10 cm across, occasionally up to 15 cm. Young caps are convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten, sink in the centre and become funnel-shaped, sometimes with a small central bump. The margin is wavy, lobed and looks bent.
The colour is grey, leaden grey, lilac-grey, pinkish grey or brownish grey, turning ochre or beige in old specimens. Concentric zones are faint or absent, though darker rings sometimes show towards the margin. The surface is smooth, dry and matt, occasionally finely cracked. In the rain it gets slightly sticky, but it's never slimy.
Hymenophore
The gills are widely spaced for a milkcap, thick and brittle, attached or running slightly down the stem, often wavy and sometimes forked near the stem. They start cream or pale yellow and turn ochre with age.
Drops of white milk often bead along the gill edges. The spore print is cream to yellowish.
Stem
The stem is short and stout: 3–8 cm tall and 1–3 cm thick. It's cylindrical or tapers downwards, solid at first and hollow later, sometimes with lengthwise grooves.
It's the same colour as the cap or paler: whitish cream to lilac-grey, sometimes with ochre spots at the base. There is no ring and no volva.
Flesh
The flesh is white to cream, firm, thick in the cap, and doesn't change colour when cut. The milk is white, plentiful and stays white in the air. Both flesh and milk taste very hot and slightly bitter.
Smell
The smell is faint, fruity and slightly sour. It lacks the strong lovage smell of the fenugreek milkcap and the coconut smell of the coconut milkcap.
›Scientific synonyms (2)
Lactifluus flexuosus (Pers.) Kuntze, Lactarius roseozonatus (H. Post) Britzelm.
Don’t mix them up
Stumpy milkcap lookalikes and comparison
Compare with another mushroom| Feature | Stumpy milkcap | Fenugreek milk cap |
|---|---|---|
| Hymenophore | Gilled | Gilled |
| Cap colour | Grey, Violet, Pink, Brown | Brown, Cream, Orange |
| Smell | Fruity | Pleasant |
| Edibility | Conditionally edible | Poisonous |
Other lookalikes
Beech milk capConditionally ediblecomparison →
Coconut milk capConditionally ediblecomparison →
Ugly milk capInediblecomparison →
CharbonnierEdiblecomparison →
Readers’ finds · 0
Readers’ photos aren’t checked by an expert. “Confirmed” means foragers in the feed agree — not a guarantee. When in doubt, leave it.
Related species
Mushrooms of the same genus and habitat — to study side by side and never mix up.
Lactarius resimus
False saffron milk cap
Lactarius deterrimus
Lactarius salmonicolor
Saffron milk cap
Lactarius deliciosus
Woolly milk cap
Lactarius torminosus
Bearded milk cap
Lactarius pubescens
Bloody milk cap
Lactarius sanguifluus
Curry milk cap
Lactarius camphoratus
Frequently asked questions
Is the stumpy milkcap edible?
It depends on whom you ask. Some Western European guides list Lactarius flexuosus as inedible because its milk is fiercely hot, while in Finland, Belarus and Russia it's eaten salted after soaking or parboiling. Raw or simply fried, it burns the mouth and can upset the stomach. We treat it as conditionally edible: only ever salted, never fresh, and a poor edible at best.
Is the stumpy milkcap the same as the grey milkcap?
No. In Britain the grey milkcap is Lactarius vietus, a smaller, thinner, sticky species with crowded gills, found under birch in damp places, whose milk dries grey on the gills. The stumpy milkcap is stouter, dry and matt except in rain, with widely spaced, thick, cream to yellowish gills and white milk that stays white. The grey milkcap's edibility is disputed too.
How is Lactarius flexuosus prepared where people eat it?
Only salted. Pickers soak it in cold water, changing the water several times, or parboil it and throw the water away. Finnish mycologists advise boiling hot-tasting milkcaps for at least five minutes, rinsing them in cold water and only then salting them. Guides give no exact soaking time for this species, and some heat remains even after long boiling, so it's rated a poor edible.
Can you eat a stumpy milkcap raw or fried?
No. Raw or simply fried, it burns the mouth and can upset the stomach, as hot-tasting milkcaps do until they've been soaked or parboiled. The only traditional use is salting. If you develop nausea, vomiting or severe stomach pain after a mushroom meal, call 112 (999 in the UK) and say you ate wild mushrooms.
What is Lactarius flexuosus var. roseozonatus?
It's a pinker form of the stumpy milkcap. Its cap is cream-pink to lilac with diffuse grey-pink zones, and its gills are widely spaced like the typical form. Index Fungorum places it under Lactarius flexuosus, and most authors now treat it as a variety rather than a separate species; Finnish sources consider it separable only under the microscope. For foragers it's the same mushroom.
How do you tell the stumpy milkcap from the fenugreek milkcap?
Break a gill and look at the milk, then smell the mushroom. The fenugreek milkcap (Lactarius helvus) has watery, clear, scant milk that may vanish in older specimens, a strong smell of fenugreek or lovage, crowded gills and a velvety brownish-grey cap, and it's poisonous raw. The stumpy milkcap releases plenty of white, burning milk, has widely spaced gills and smells only faintly fruity.
How do you identify the stumpy milkcap?
Several features together identify it. The cap is 5 to 10 cm across, grey, lilac-grey, pinkish grey or leaden, with a wavy, bent margin, dry and matt except in rain. For a milkcap the gills are unusually widely spaced, thick, and cream to yellowish. A broken gill releases plenty of white milk that stays white in the air. The stem is short and stout, paler than the cap, with no ring.
Where does the stumpy milkcap grow in Britain and Europe?
It's a northern species, common in Scandinavia and also recorded in Britain, though patchy further south in Europe. Look on grassy or mossy ground with birch, spruce, pine or aspen: woodland edges, clearings and the verges of forest tracks and paths. It fruits from midsummer to mid-autumn, most plentifully in late summer and early autumn, and it's gone before the frosts.
Sources
- [1]Index Fungorum
- [2]GBIF
- [3]iNaturalist Ukraine
- [4]Wikipedia (English)
- [5]Википедия (ru): Серушка
- [6]Wikigrib: Серушка
- [7]Wikipedia (de): Verbogener Milchling
- [8]Wikipedia (fi): Nurmirousku
- [9]Wikipedia (pl): Mleczaj wygięty
- [10]Wikipedia (be): Шаруха
- [11]BioImages: Lactarius flexuosus (Stumpy Milkcap)
- [12]University of Helsinki, Pinkka: Kauppasienet ja myrkkysienet