Pileus: convex, then centrally depressed; 60 – 120 mm diameter; minutely felty with a pale bloom caused by hyaline hairs; pale dried apricot (7B5); margin wavy and in rolled.

Stipe: cylindrical, very hard; 30 – 55 × 20 – 28 mm; minutely felty; apricot (7B6), less bleached than cap.

Gills: subdecurrent; moderately spaced; cream, but browning on contact with latex, lamellulae present in two series.

Milk: white, mild, unchanging.

Smell: strong, cooked fish.

Chemical reactions: FeSO4 on stipe: slowly green, finally black.

Spore print: white to pale cream.

Spores : subglobose to broadly ellipsoid; 5.8 – 7.9 × 5.3 – 7 µm, average Q = 1.14 ± 0.09; with amyloid warts and low ridges forming a partial reticulum.

Notes: this Lactarius is identifies in the field by its suede like pale apricot cap, subdecurrent gills, smell of cooked fish and green reaction to FeSO4. This does not appear to be identical to the taxa with this name in Australia and New Zealand. Sequencing places it close to L. subclarkeae but this would appear to be a separate species.

Patrick Leonard 2019

Jerry Cooper sequencing 2020