also found in areas of Asia (Turkey, India, Pakistan). According to recent molecular biologic research, the similar North American species from the United States and Mexico are not closely related to the European species. In Europe, the fungus is especially common in Northern, North-East and Central Europe; in the UK, it may be found from July through to November. In the south and west it is common in mountainous areas. In the east, its range extends to Russia. Ecology Lactarius deterrimus has traditionally been considered to have a strict mycorrhizal host specificity with Norway spruce. In 2006, it was reported that the fungus can also form arbutoid mycorrhiza with bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). Arbutoid mycorrhizal associations are variants of ectomycorrhiza found in certain plants in the Ericaceae characterised by hyphal coils in epidermal cells. The mycorrhiza formed by L. deterrimus on both bearberry and Norway spruce show typical features such as a hyphal mantle and a Hartig net; the distinguishing characteristic between the mycorrhizal symbioses with the different hosts is that the hyphae penetrate the epidermal cells of bearberry, although there are also some differences in the form of the Hartig net, branching pattern, and colour. Although bearberry has been shown to form mycorrhiza with a wide range of fungi both in the field and in laboratory experiments, it had never previously been known to form mycorrhiza with fungi thought to be strictly host-specific. Bearberry may function as a nurse plant to help re-establish Norway spruce in deforested areas. The species is common in spruce-fir and spruce-moorland forests and in spruce forests and plantations. Together with spruces, the fungus is also common in different European beech and oak-European hornbeam forests, but also on the forest edges, on clearings and in clearcut meadows and even on juniper heathers and in parkland. There are scarcely any habitats where the spruce is common, while the fungus is not found there. The fungus is very common in young spruce forests that are 10 to 20 years old, where it occurs on forest path edges occasionally in masses. The fungus probably favours calcareous soil, although it has been found on nearly every soil type. It appears on sand, peat, limestone soils, rankers and Cambisols. It endures acidic as well as alkaline and low-nutrient to relatively high-nutrient soils. Heavily eutrophic soils are inappropriate for its habitat. The fruit bodies appear from late June to November, but usually