Lactarius kauffmanii Smith & Hesler. Cap 5-15cm across, flatly convex with a depressed disc and inrolled, minutely hairy margin which lifts upward in age; blackish brown becoming more reddish gray-black, and very occasionally with concentric bands of color; slimy and sticky, smooth, sometimes streaked under the slime. Gills adnate to short decurrent, close, narrow becoming broad, forking near the stem; pale pinky-buff to pale ochraceous salmon flushed cinnamon or with brown patches. Stem 50-100 x 10-30mm, becoming hollow, sometimes thicker in the middle; pale pinky-brown or tan; slimy, sticky and shiny, smooth, pitted. Flesh violet-brown near the cuticle, pale pinky-brown near the gills. Latex white, unchanging, slowly staining the gills an olive- or gray-brown. Odor none. Taste acrid. Spores subglobose to ovate, amyloid, 9-9.5 x 7.5-8.5µ; ornamented with a distinct partial reticulum with irregular meshing, prominences 0.2-0.7µ high. Deposit whitish. Habitat on soil in coniferous woods. Quite common. Found widely distributed in northwestern North America. Season July-November. Not edible.