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Entoloma rhodopolium
I'm using the name "Entoloma rhodopolium" to refer to a group of species characterized by the following:
Appearance in hardwood forests in late summer or fall;
Medium stature (cap to about 10 cm; stem about 1 cm wide);
White stem, flesh, and young gills;
Absence of cystidia;
Tan, light brown, or yellow-brown cap.
Like other species of Entoloma, the species in this group have pink spore prints, grow on the ground, and have (under the microscope) angular spores.
Entoloma rhodopolium is poisonous.
Description:
Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously under hardwoods; late summer and fall (also over winter in California); widely distributed in North America.
Cap: 5-12 cm; convex, sometimes with a slight central bump, becoming broadly convex, broadly bell-shaped, or nearly flat; sticky when fresh; tan to yellow-brown or grayish brown, fading and drying out to grayish or almost whitish; the margin lined, at least by maturity.
Gills: Attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; white at first, becoming pink with maturity.
Stem: 4-10 cm long; 6-12 mm thick; more or less equal; fairly dry; smooth, or very finely hairy at the apex; white; becoming hollow.
Flesh: Thin; fragile; whitish.
Odor and Taste: Not distinctive or mealy.
Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.
Spore Print: Pink.
Microscopic Features: Spores 6.5-11 x 7-9 µ; 6-, 7-, and 8-sided; angular; inamyloid. Cystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis. Clamp connections present.
REFERENCES: (Fries, 1838) Kummer, 1871. (Fries, 1818; Fries, 1821; Saccardo, 1887; Kauffman, 1918; Hesler, 1967; Noordeloos, 1981; Arora, 1986; Largent, 1994; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1995; McNeil, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 10010420, 09240504.
The taxonomy of this species group is problematic, and it is unclear whether any of our North American rhodopolium-like mushrooms are actually the same as the European species originally named by Elias Fries. In fact it is unclear whether the European mushrooms going under the name of Entoloma rhodopolium are all the same. According to the Dutch mycologist Machiel Noordeloos (1981), "[t]here is great need for neotypification of this classical Friesian species." Largent (1994) describes 6 "forms" of Entoloma rhodopolium from western North America, separated on minor morphological differences and ecological preferences.
Kuo, M. (2008, January). Entoloma rhodopolium. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site:
