Lactifluus annulatoangustifolius

Overview

Lactifluus annulatoangustifolius is a milkcap mushroom in the genus Lactifluus. EFTA's tropical-African species account uses the combination Lactifluus annulatoangustifolius (Beeli) Buyck and cites Mycotaxon 118:450 (2011).

The species is known from the rainforests of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is an ectomycorrhizal fungus, growing in partnership with the roots of forest trees, so it is found where those trees grow and cannot be cultivated in the way a saprotrophic mushroom can. The catalogue records its supply as wild only.

Food use in Tshopo

A survey of wild edible ectomycorrhizal fungi in Tshopo province, carried out in local communities near the Yangambi biosphere reserve and the Yoko forest reserve, lists Lactifluus annulatoangustifolius under food, with the local name Belaa'tala. It is one of the species the survey records as locally consumed.

Studies from this region describe the edible ectomycorrhizal fungi as little harvested by local people. The authors suggest that the distance people must travel to reach the forest where these fungi grow is a likely reason, and they also point to food taboos that discourage mushroom eating, which they say reduce interest in some edible ectomycorrhizal species.

Preparation

No preparation method for this species is recorded in the sources used here. The survey lists it as a food but does not describe how it is cooked, dried, preserved or eaten, and the catalogue states that species-specific preparation was not established. This page therefore gives no cooking method, and anyone handling the mushroom should not take preparation advice from this page.

Identification and safety

The sources do not include a toxicological assessment of this species. The food record comes from ethnomycological fieldwork, and the catalogue treats it as evidence of local food use, not as proof that the mushroom is safe to eat.

Lactifluus is a large genus of milkcaps, and wild milkcaps can resemble species that are acrid or unsafe to eat. A specialist mycologist should confirm the identification of any wild collection before it is eaten, and a local food record does not by itself confirm that a particular collection matches this name.

Naming status

Taxonomic sources use two combinations for this species. EFTA uses Lactifluus annulatoangustifolius (Beeli) Buyck and cites the 2011 combination; Species Fungorum lists Lactarius annulatoangustifolius (Beeli) Buyck 1989 as a synonym under Lactarius. This page follows EFTA's treatment for the display name while retaining Species Fungorum's synonym record. The catalogue does not record an English or French common name.