Lactarius pubescens, commonly known as the downy milk cap, is a species of fungus in the Russulaceae family. It is a medium to large agaric with a creamy-buff, hairy cap, whitish gills and short stout stem. The fungus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and grows solitarily or in scattered groups on sandy soil under or near birch.
The cap is 2.5–10 cm (1.0–3.9 in) wide, obtuse to convex, becoming broadly convex with a depressed center. The margin (cap edge) is rolled inward and bearded with coarse white hairs when young. The cap surface is dry and fibrillose except for the center, which is sticky and smooth when fresh, azonate, white to cream, becoming reddish-orange to vinaceous (wine-colored) on the disc with age. The gills are attached to slightly decurrent, crowded, seldom forked, whitish to pale yellow with pinkish tinges, slowly staining brownish ochraceous when bruised. The stem is 2–6.5 cm (0.8–2.6 in) long, 6–13 mm (0.24–0.51 in) thick, nearly equal or tapered downward, silky, becoming hollow with age, whitish when young, becoming ochraceous from the base up when older, apex usually tinged pinkish, often with a white basal mycelium. The flesh is firm, white; odor faintly like geraniums or sometimes pungent, taste acrid. The latex is white upon exposure, unchanging, not staining tissues, taste acrid. The spore print is cream with a pinkish tint. The edibility of Lactarius pubescens has been described as unknown or edible.
The spores are 6–8.5 by 5–6.5 µm, elliptic, ornamented with warts and ridges that sometimes form a partial reticulum, prominences up to 1.5 µm high, hyaline (translucent), and amyloid. The cap cuticle is a layer of thin-walled hyphae.