Lactarius acutus

What it is

Lactarius acutus is an ectomycorrhizal milkcap of the rainforest. Like other ectomycorrhizal fungi, it grows in association with the roots of forest trees and does not grow on dead wood. The catalogue gives no common name for it.

Food use in Tshopo

The catalogue records Lactarius acutus as locally consumed in voucher-backed interviews in Tshopo province. Species-specific preparation was not established in the catalogue, so this page gives no method.

A 2018 study of traditional knowledge in Tshopo, based on 160 informants from six ethnic communities, reports that people use 73 wild mushroom species. Of these, 68 are eaten, 9 are used as medicine, 2 are used recreationally and 7 are tied to myths and beliefs. Women do most of the harvesting and hold most of the cultural knowledge about fungi. The key food species named are Schizophyllum commune, Auricularia cornea, Auricularia delicata, Marasmius buzungolo and Lentinus squarrosulus.

A 2020 study from the Yangambi and Yoko areas records edible ectomycorrhizal species in the rainforest. It suggests they are underused partly because people must travel far to collect them, and that local interest favours saprotrophic species that grow on wood. None of these studies confirms that a local name for Lactarius acutus is known.

What is not known

The species list of the 2020 ectomycorrhizal study has not been checked for this page, so whether Lactarius acutus appears in it is unconfirmed. The catalogue also gives no local name, no preparation and no measure of how often the species is eaten.

Safety

The catalogue states that this is an ethnomycological food-use record, not an independent toxicological assessment. Milkcaps need specialist identification before they are eaten, and a local record of eating does not establish that a particular specimen is safe.