Lactarius mucidus var. mucidus (Burlingham) Smith & Hesler Cap 3-9cm across, broadly convex to flat, with a wide depressed disc and sometimes an acute umbo; dingy chocolate or gray-brown to pinky-buff, paler toward the margin; smooth and persistently very sticky. Gills adnate or subdecurrent, close, medium broad; white to cream, staining blue-green to gray with latex. Stem 40-80 x 7-l0mm, solid eventually becoming hollow, tapering slightly toward the top; same color as cap but paler; smooth, sticky. Flesh thick, firm though thin in margin; white. Latex white, drying blue or greeny gray on gills. Odor mild. Taste acrid. Spores ellipsoid, amyloid, 7.5-9 x 6-7µ.; ornamented with a partial reticulum and variable ridges and warts in a zebra-like pattern, prominences 0.2-0.5µ. high. Deposit white. Habitat scattered or in groups on the soil or in needle duff under conifers. Quite common. Widely distributed in north central and northeastern North America. Season June-November. Not edible.