Entoloma sepium

Description

Entoloma sepium is a species of Fungi in the family Entolomataceae. The cap of Entoloma sepium is frequently colored brown, gray, white, and yellow. The color of the flesh is often brown, orange, red, and white. The gills of Entoloma sepium are regularly colored pink, red, white, and yellow. The stem is often colored white and yellow. When cut, the coloring of Entoloma sepium changes to brown and red. The spore dust is frequently colored red. It grows mainly on forest soils and meadows. Its main season begins in March and ends in September.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   3 to 10cm across; initially conical, becoming convex with a slight umbo and a wavy margin; surface slightly greasy when fresh, often with fine silky radial fibrils; flesh firm and white.

2. Gills

   Adnate, crowded; white or very pale grey at first, becoming pink at maturity.

3. Stem

   4 to 9cm long and 5 to 15mm dia.; color as cap or paler, especially towards base; sometimes with reddish longitudinal fibrils; cylindrical or slightly clavate at base; no stem ring.

4. Spores

   Angular, subglobose, 7-10 x 6.8-9μm.

5. Spore Print

   Pink.

6. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

7. Habitat

   Usually in small groups in grass or leaf litter under trees or bushes of the family Rosaceae, with which they may be mycorrhizal.

8. Season

   Fruiting from spring to midsummer.

Look-Alikes

Entoloma clypeatum Share the same habitat and appear simultaneously. Typical fresh specimens of E. clypeatum have brown or gray-brown caps (significantly darker than those of E. sepium). Sometimes, however, distinguishing between the two is extremely difficult. For example, there are specimens of E. clypeatum with lighter caps or those that have become lighter or cracked due to drought.

An important feature that helps in such cases is the tendency of E. sepium flesh to turn orange-pink in case of injury and stay. This is demonstrated by cutting the stump, where insect larvae often dig, turning the flesh orange-pink.

Separately, another species is described that shares this habitat, but has pure white fruiting bodies - Entoloma niphoides. Entoloma saundersii is a rare early spring species that has a silver-gray cap and grows under elms (Ulmus), but there are reports that it can also grow under roses.

Poison plum (Entoloma sinuatum) is a large, fleshy mushroom with yellow lamellae in young mushrooms. It grows in deciduous forests from early summer to autumn.

History

When in 1838 French mycologists Jean Baptiste Noulet (1802 - 1890) and Henri Gabirel Benoit Dassier de la Chassagne (1748 -1816) described this pink gill they gave it the scientific name Agaricus sepius. (In the early days of fungal taxonomy most gilled fungi were initially placed in a giant Agaricus genus, now largely redistributed across many other genera.) It was in 1888 that Charles Édouard Richon (1820 - 1893) and Ernest Roze (1833 -1900) transferred this species to the genus Entoloma, at which point its scientific name became Entoloma sepium.

The generic name Entoloma comes from ancient Greek words entos, meaning inner, and lóma, meaning a fringe or a hem. It is a reference to the inrolled margins of many of the mushrooms in this genus.

The specific epithet sepium may come from the Latin noun sepis, a surrounding hedge or fence; hence sepium would imply 'of hedges' - and hawthorn and blackthorn, which are common hedging plants, are members of the family Rosaceae with which Entoloma sepium is associated.

Synonyms

1. Entoloma clypeatum var. sepium (Noulet & Dass.) G. Poirault & Roze, 1880

2. Entoloma saepium (Noulet & Dass.) Richon & Roze, 1880

3. Rhodophyllus sepius (Noulet & Dass.) Romagn., 1947

4. Rhodophyllus sepium (Noulet & Dass.) Romagn., 1947

5. Rhodophyllus clypeatus var. murinus Quél., 1898

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Davide Puddu (Davide Puddu) (CC BY-SA 3.0)