Entoloma lividoalbum

Description

Entoloma lividoalbum is characterized by a Tricholoma-like stature, a nearly glabrous, dingy-brown cap often with a lighter disc, a translucent-striate margin, solid stipe, and a faint farinaceous odor and taste, the odor most apparent when the cap tissue is crushed.

Identifying a species often requires careful study of the cap, stipe, odors if present, and in some cases microscopic features.

This mushroom can be confused with unrelated, edible mushrooms such as Clitocybe nuda.

Entoloma lividoalbum was originally described (Kühner & Romagnesi 1954) from Europe; our North American versions may represent as-yet-unnamed species.

Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously under hardwoods (including quaking aspen and coast live oak); summer and fall, or overwinter in coastal California; fairly widely distributed west of the Great Plains; also known from temperate Europe.

2. Cap

   5–7 cm; conico-convex to bell-shaped or convex at first, becoming broadly convex, broadly bell-shaped, or nearly flat; greasy when fresh; bald; dark grayish brown when young, quickly fading to yellow-brown or grayish tan; the margin not lined or only faintly lined at maturity.

3. Gills

   Narrowly attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; at first white, becoming pink with maturity.

4. Stem

   5–8 cm long; 1–2 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; bald but finely lined longitudinally; white.

5. Flesh

   Thin; fragile; white.

6. Odor and Taste

   Mealy or, in forma inodoratum, not distinctive.

7. Spore Print

   Pink.

8. Microscopic Features

   Spores 7–10 x 6–8 µm; mostly 5- and 6-sided; heterodiametric; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Basidia mostly 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis with intracellular brownish pigment; elements 5–7.5 µm wide, smooth, hyaline in KOH; terminal cells cylindric with rounded or subacute apices. Clamp connections are present.

Look-Alikes

1. Lyophyllum decastes

   Has a similar stature and a grayish-brown glabrous cap, but typically grows in clusters. When in doubt it can be distinguished by a white spore print.

2. Clitocybe nuda

   Though normally distinctive with a lilac-colored sporocarp, can be nearly brown in age or with weathering, sometimes even mimicking the often wavy cap margin of Entoloma lividoalbum. The pinkish-brown angular spores of Entoloma lividoalbum serve to distinguish it from Clitocybe nuda which has pinkish-buff, elliptical spores.

3. Entoloma sericatum

   Common under oaks, but with a dark-brown cap, lighter towards a striate margin, the cap context <8 mm thick at the stipe, and a momentary nitrous odor that becomes farinaceous.

4. Entoloma rhodopolium

   A slender species, with a relatively thin cap <7 mm thick near the stipe, the margin translucent-striate, sometimes halfway to the disc, a stipe that is often hollow at maturity, and a weak farinaceous odor.

5. Entoloma cinereolamellatum

   Has a dark-brown cap that may become dingy orange-brown at the disc, thus appearing two-toned, the cap context >10 mm thick near the stipe, the gills grayish when young.

6. Entoloma nidorosum

   Found under conifers, with a yellowish-tan cap and marginal striations reaching halfway to the disc, the cap context <7mm thick near the stipe, and a strong nitrous odor when fresh. For more information on these and other species.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Ron Pastorino (Ronpast) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: James K. Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 3 - Author: James K. Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)