Ugly Milk-cap

I spent the morning ambling round Holme Fen, hunting for fungi, which were fairly few and far between. By the mere I chanced across a grove of Ugly Milk-caps Lactarius turpis.  At first it has an involute margin and a somewhat depressed centre. When young it has velvety zones and may be shaggy at the rim. The somewhat decurrent gills are dirty white, stained olive-brown by old milk, which is initially white on contact with the air. Back home I checked its identity by dropping potassium hydroxide onto the gills which turned them a most vivid shade of purple!


In the afternoon we went into town to see the Zombie Walk and Diwali celebrations. There were some amazing costumes, but some of them were just a bit too gross for me. I had been planning to take some photographs, but the light was poor and I found it just a bit too intimidating. We dropped in at the Brewery Tap on the way home, and then somehow ended up having a Thai meal, having lit candles for all our departed relatives and friends (not to mention a few family pets).