cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/25279811
Found this one in the woods behind my house. One of my favorite mushrooms to find even though there's not much to do with it, it's beautiful just to look at!
The blue "milk" contains latex, so don't handle if you're allergic. It's related to regular milk caps and looks identical aside from the brilliant color.
Something that you don't often see in field guides: it smells quite sweet in addition to the usual earthiness.
I will be returning it to the forest floor to drop its spores in hopes I keep finding them.
"Latex" is a botany term for any milky liquid exuded by a damaged plant, mushrooms kept the term from back when they were considered plants but it not the same substance. A "latex allergy" is specifically an allergy to rubber tree latex because that's the only kind of latex that's widely used by humans, it doesn't mean you're allergic to dandelion latex or mushroom latex.