Lactarius indigo (Schw.) Fr.  An eastern North American - eastern Asian disjunct milkcap

The species epithet, indigo, best describes this remarkably distinctive fungus: pileus indigo blue, fading to gray-blue; gills indigo blue, staining green; flesh white, turning blue when cut; latex deep indigo blue, changing to dark green on exposure to air; basidiospores subglobose, amyloid, with reticulum ornamentation.

The fungus is an ectomycorrhizal species, growing on soil in oak and pine woods.

Lactarius indigo has been reported from Canada (Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec), USA (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont), Colombia, Costa Rica (Cartago and Guanacaste), Guatemala, Mexico, China (Sichuan), and Japan.

The specimens obtained from the U.S. and Chinese localities are very similar in basidiomata morphology. As shown in this sporogram, the basidiospore measurements of the Asian collections are within the ranges of those from North and South America. To test the phylogenetic relationships among the geographically isolated populations of Lactarius indigo, we are conducting DNA sequencing analyses for this species.

Q value=spore length / spore width

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Lactarius indigo Suillus spraguei