Mushroom Monday
Entoloma strictius - Straight Stalked Entoloma
Good evening, friends,
Today we’re looking at a mushroom I’ve seen on each of the past four days, the straight-stalked entoloma (Entoloma strictius). We found this mushroom at For the Love of Fungi, and again during the NYMS walk at Manitou where I was able to confirm the identification. This is a very “regular” looking mushroom. The business casual of the woods with a subdued tan color that adorns the classic cap and stem physique. It’s important not to judge a book by it’s cover, though, so let’s see if there isn’t more than meets the eye with these straight-stalked summer saprobes.
Fun Facts
Entolomas are referred to as “pinkgills” because, like Pluteus, they have pink spores which then taint their gills pink. The difference in the two is that Entoloma gills will attach to the stipe (stem), while Pluteus gills do not. Entoloma is a large genus, comprised of around 2,000 species, and so you run into some that are edible and some that are toxic - the only Entoloma I hear of people eating are Shrimp of the Woods (Entoloma abortivum), and they’re technically parasitized honey mushrooms. I wouldn’t anticipate much from our E. strictius in the edibility department, the caps and stipes are so thin they’d probably disintegrate in the pan.
These mushrooms have an umbo which is the prominent point in the center of their cap. While it looks like a nipple, or the cap of a baby’s bottle, my mind goes to umbo → umbilical → “outie” belly button. Caps with these distinct points are referred to as umbonate and can either be acutely umbonate if the point is sharp or broadly umbonate if it is a more mild bump.
The etymology of Entoloma comes from the Greek entos- which means “inner” and “lóma” which means “fringe” or “hem”. The name refers to the in-rolled margins of the cap on many of these mushrooms.
Ecology
E. strictius is saprobic and consumes dead organic material. I thought most Entolomas were mycorrhizal, but most are actually saprotrophic and get their nutrition from digesting organic material in the soil. We also found a couple of these popping directly out of wood.
It should be noted that there are likely several, nearly identical species masquerading under this one species name; someone will need to undertake a large DNA sequencing effort to parse out individual species. Perhaps different species prefer different substrates.
It appears like E. strictius grows east and west of the Rocky Mountains in North America (but not in the Rockies). On iNaturalist, there are a smattering of other observations across Eurasia and South America. Unfortunately, I think the mushroom’s generic appearance might confuse iNat’s artificial intelligence and lead to some inaccurate identifications. I looked at some of the observations from other parts of the globe and they were not this mushroom. The computers don’t know everything, yet. Observations peak in July and August, which coincides with when I’ve found the mushroom, but iNaturalist has dozens of observations ranging spring through fall.
A couple other fun finds from the weekend
That’s a wrap on a great weekend of mushrooming. We’re on to Mycofest,
Aubrey
References:
Kuo, M. (2014, January). Entoloma strictius. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/entoloma_strictius.html
http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Straight-stalked_Entoloma.html