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Indigo milk cap7/3/2023 ![]() ![]() Hesler and Smith, in their 1960 study of North American species of Lactarius, defined L. indigo as the type species of subsection Caerulei, a group characterized by blue latex and a sticky, blue cap. German botanist Otto Kuntze called it Lactifluus indigo in his 1891 treatise Revisio Generum Plantarum, but the suggested name change was not adopted by others. Originally described in 1822 as Agaricus indigo by American mycologist Lewis David de Schweinitz, the species was later transferred to the genus Lactarius in 1838 by the Swede Elias Magnus Fries. In Honduras, the mushroom is called a chora, and is generally eaten with egg generally as a side dish for a bigger meal. It is an edible mushroom, and is sold in rural markets in China, Guatemala, and Mexico. The milk, or latex, that oozes when the mushroom tissue is cut or broken - a feature common to all members of the genus Lactarius - is also indigo blue, but slowly turns green upon exposure to air. The fruit body color ranges from dark blue in fresh specimens to pale blue-gray in older ones. L. indigo grows on the ground in both deciduous and coniferous forests, where it forms mycorrhizal associations with a broad range of trees. It is a widely distributed species, growing naturally in eastern North America, East Asia, and Central America it has also been reported in southern France. Lactarius indigo, commonly known as the indigo milk cap, indigo milky, the indigo (or blue) lactarius, or the blue milk mushroom, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Russulaceae. ![]()
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