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Rosy cap with orange gills
Lactarius sp. Genus
Angles captured. Six frames — two from above and four low profiles.
Morphology
Cap 6–8 cm, dull rose to salmon-pink, dry and matte, plane and becoming shallowly funnel-shaped, margin faintly wavy. Gills a striking contrast — deep orange to ochre-buff, close, and clearly decurrent. Stipe short, stout, pale orange-buff, dry.
Habitat & substrate
Oak litter on a slope beside mossy boulders, under closed hardwood canopy.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
A rosy cap over conspicuously orange decurrent gills is a strong pointer to Lactarius. Chroogomphus shows a similar colour scheme but has thick, waxy, widely spaced gills and grows with pine.
To confirm this identification
Cut a gill and look for latex, then note its colour and whether it changes. In this group the latex colour is often the whole identification.
Found at Leominster State Forest, Leominster, MA on Thursday, 6 August 2026 at 10:45. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Rosy-capped mushroom on a mossy logRussula sp. · Oct 25Moderate
Red Russula at an oak baseRussula sp. · Jul 23High for genus
Yellow-capped RussulaRussula sp. · Jul 31Moderate
Salmon-pink Russula on mossRussula sp. · Jul 31Moderate
Cluster with cracked orange-brown capsLactifluus or Lactarius · Jul 31Moderate
Rose-red Russula on mossRussula sp. · Aug 1High for genus
Large grey-brown brittlegillRussula sp. · Aug 1Moderate
Pink Russula on a mossy rockRussula sp. · Aug 6Moderate–high