It can be found in North America and Europe, and grows at the base of pine in Autumn.

Its white milk stains fabric a sulphur yellow, from which its specific epithet derives.

The original description of L. tabidus has been various ascribed to Elias Magnus Fries,[2] and to Pierre Bulliard,[3] while the synonymous specific name L. theiogalus is variously credited to Fries[2] and Samuel Frederick Gray.

[2][3] The mushroom has also been named L. chrysorrheus by Lucien Quélet, based on Fries's description,[2] and Lactarius hepaticus, with the authority cited to Charles Bagge Plowright of the British Mycological Society and Jean Louis Émile Boudier.

[1] Lactarius tabidus has a convex cap of between 2.5 and 7 centimetres across, sometimes with a central umbo, that flattens with age.