Deadly
Deadly Galerina
Galerina marginata
A small brown mushroom on wood, but it gives no latex when cut, usually has a ring or ring zone, and leaves a rusty-brown spore print.
Candy Cap
Lactarius rubidus
Edible
Also called western candy cap.
The candy cap is a small, rusty orange-brown milk cap from the Pacific Coast that smells of maple syrup or burnt sugar when dried. It grows in oak and conifer woods during the winter rainy season and is collected as a flavoring for desserts.
Lactarius rubidus
Photo coming
The tell
Small orange-brown milk cap with thin, watery latex that smells strongly of maple syrup once dried.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Convex to flat, often with a small central bump or a shallow dip. Orange-brown to cinnamon or rusty red, dry and slightly wrinkled.
- Underside
- Pale orange to pinkish-buff gills, attached to slightly running down the stem.
- Stem
- Slender, brittle, hollow and colored like the cap. No ring and no cup.
- Flesh
- Thin and brittle. The latex is clear and watery, like skim milk or whey, and does not change color. Fresh specimens smell faint; dried ones smell strongly of maple syrup.
- Spore print
- Whitish to cream or pale yellow.
- Size
- Cap 3/4 to 2 1/2 inches (2 to 6 cm) wide; stem 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) tall.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Under oaks, tanoaks and conifers in coastal forests, often on rotting wood, needle litter or moss.
- Grows on
- Soil and well-rotted woody debris.
- Season
- Fall through early spring, during the Pacific Coast rainy season.
- Range
- Pacific Coast, mainly California; eastern candy caps are related species such as Lactarius camphoratus.
Lookalikes
What the candy cap gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Red hot milk cap (Lactarius rufus)
Similar color but larger, with white latex rather than watery latex, and no maple smell when dried.
Eastern candy cap (Lactarius camphoratus)
An eastern relative with a similar sweet smell when dried, found under conifers and hardwoods east of the Rockies.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Edible
Field guides list the candy cap as edible and describe its use as a flavoring, usually dried, in cookies, ice cream and syrups. The maple smell comes from sotolon, the same compound that gives fenugreek and maple syrup their scent. Its dangerous confusion is with small brown mushrooms such as Galerina, which contain amatoxins.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the candy cap
Why do candy caps smell like maple syrup?
They contain sotolon, an aroma compound also found in fenugreek and maple syrup. The smell is weak in fresh specimens and becomes strong once the mushroom dries.
Where do candy caps grow?
In oak, tanoak and conifer forests along the Pacific Coast, mostly in California. They fruit during the rainy season, from fall into early spring.
What does a candy cap look like?
A small orange-brown cap on a brittle, hollow stem of the same color, with pale gills. Broken gills release thin, watery, whey-like latex, and dried specimens smell of maple syrup.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Lactarius rubidus
MushroomExpert.com
- Lactarius rubidus
MykoWeb, California Fungi
- Lactarius rubidus
Index Fungorum
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