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LACCARIA<br />
LACCARIA<br />
Species of Laccaria have white or pale lilac spores, usually strongly<br />
echinulate and not amyloid. They have rather thick, somewhat waxy-looking<br />
lamellae that are usually purpHsh to flesh colored, and lack annulus and volva.<br />
They have been placed in Clitocybe but they are not closely related to this<br />
genus. They are most likely to be confused with Hygrophorus because of the<br />
waxy appearance of the lamellae but the echinulate spores will distinguish<br />
them. They might even be mistaken for the fruiting bodies of a Lactarius in<br />
which the latex had dried up, but the iodine reaction of the spores is a sure<br />
way of separating them. The spores of all Lactarius species turn blue in iodine.<br />
Laccaria species are edible but are not reputed to be of good flavor.<br />
LACCARIA LACCATA (Fr.) Berk. & Br. Edible<br />
Figure 214, page 133<br />
piLEUS %-2 (3) in. broad, convex becoming plane, sometimes slightly<br />
umbilicate, glabrous at first, then scurfy to somewhat scaly, hygrophanous,<br />
variable in color, reddish brown to reddish flesh colored, fading to ochraceous<br />
or paHid, margin even or wavy to notched, flesh thin, moist, taste mild.<br />
LAMELLAE emarginate to short decurrent, broad, distant to subdistant, thick,<br />
tinged flesh color, stipe 1-4 in. long, j/g-W (%) in^- thick, equal, tough, fibrous,<br />
glabrous to scurfy, sometimes striate, sohd to stuff*ed or becoming hollow,<br />
colored Hke the pileus. spores globose, echinulate, white, 8-10 ju diam.<br />
Common in woods or open places. May-Nov.<br />
This is one of our commonest fungi and one of the most puzzHng to the<br />
beginner. It is very variable and is likely to be collected many times before it is<br />
recognized with certainty. The broad, distant, flesh-colored lamellae are,<br />
perhaps, the best field mark and if a microscope is available the spiny, non-<br />
amyloid spores are characteristic.<br />
L. amethystina (Bolt, ex Fr.) B. & Br. is similar in stature but the whole<br />
fruiting body is a beautiful deep violet.<br />
LACCARIA OCHROPURPUREA (Berk.) Peck Edible<br />
Figure 215, page 133<br />
PILEUS 2-4 in. broad, sometimes larger, convex to nearly plane and<br />
depressed in the center, hygrophanous, minutely downy-tomentose at first,<br />
becoming glabrous, or sometimes cracking into scale-like areas, purplish<br />
brown at first, becoming tawny yellow to grayish leather colored, margin<br />
even or wavy, flesh tough, taste unpleasant, lamellae adnate to shghtly<br />
decurrent, broad, thick, distant, purple, stipe 1 Yi-^ in. long, Yi-l in. thick,<br />
variable in shape, equal or tapering either upward or downward, sometimes<br />
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