Occurs in the Eastern half of the United States
Color has been described as cadmium orange – close – COLOR SWATCH
From North American species of Lactarius / L. R. Hesler, Alexander H. Smith; macro description of Lactarius croceus:
“Pileus 5-10 cm broad, broadly convex-depressed, expanding to
shallowly depressed or finally broadly infundibuliform, saffron-yellow
to orange-cadmium, fading, viscid at first, micaceous when dry,
azonate to obscurely zonate (sometimes very distinctly so), margin
at first involute and pruinose-downy. Context brittle, whitish, staining
cadmium-yellow before the latex changes, taste bitterish going to
acrid. Latex white then cadmium-yellow, staining gills and flesh, acrid.
Lamellae adnate-decurrent, pallid, becoming honey yellow or at
length yellowish buff, becoming cadmium-yellow where cut or bruised,
close to subdistant, moderately broad (5-6 mm), rarely forked.
Stipe 3-6 cm long, 10-20 mm thick at apex, nearly equal, concolorous with the pileus or paler, stuffed, becoming hollow, glabrous
or sometimes tomentose at the extreme base, sometimes spotted.
Spore deposit yellowish.”
Resources:
North American species of Lactarius, p. 310, University of Michigan Library Digital Collections, University of Michigan Herbarium Fungus Monographs
Lactarius croceus at MushroomExpert.Com
Observations reported as Lactarius croceus at iNaturalist