Woolly milkcap - a hairy, poisonous cousin of the well-known, edible and popular milkcap species

A species of mushroom often found in my forests, and equally often confused with an edible similar species. It has many common names, e.g. False milkcap, horse milkcap, hairy milkcap, wild milkcap, dog milkcap, woolly milkcap, but its correct scientific name is woolly milkcap or the bearded milkcap (Lactarius torminosus).

We can meet it practically in every terrain and in every forest, deciduous, mixed, coniferous, often in meadows, along roads and in ditches. It appears in early summer, sometimes even in May, and grows in late autumn, until the end of November.

The cap can reach up to 15 cm in diameter. A young individual has a convex cap, and with age it becomes flat and concave in the middle. It has characteristic concentric, circular zoning, darker than the rest of the hat. The color of the hat is pink, light pink, orange.

The hat is covered with white or slightly pink thick hairs. The leg can be several cm high and up to 3 cm thick. It's empty inside.

The mushroom blades are dense, narrow in the color of the cap, light cream and pink with age. The flesh is flesh-pink, odorless and has a sharp burning taste. It secretes white milk, which is very burning and irritating.

The mushroom is inedible and slightly poisonous, but there are enthusiasts of this mushroom. After being cooked for a very long time, the mushroom loses its poisonous properties, but why cook it when there are so many other edible species of mushrooms.