Entoloma conferendum

Description

Entoloma conferendum is a conical mushroom up to 5 or 6 cm diameter and often with a central umbo, margin lined when moist, colored pinky brown. Stem long and slender and longitudinally grooved. Gills whitish at first, becoming pink and eventually more brown; rather fragile. Spore print pink.

Common names: Star Pinkgill.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   1.5 to 4cm across; initially convex or bell-shaped, becoming broadly umbonate with a slightly incurved margin, expanding to become wavy-edged; hygrophanous, dark brown at first, becoming much lighter once the caps dry out; margin translucent striate; surface finely fibrillose. The thin cap flesh is fragile and easily broken if touched.

2. Gills

   Sinuate, almost free; whitish at first, becoming pink and eventually more brown; rather fragile.

3. Stem

   4 to 7cm long and 1.5 to 3mm diameter; color as cap; silkily fibrillose with clearly visible longitudinal lines; cylindrical; no ring.

4. Spores

   Knobbly (star-shaped, hence the common name), 7-13μm across.

5. Spore Print

   Pink.

6. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

7. Habitat & Ecological Role

   Saprobic, usually in small groups in grassland or grassy woodland clearings.

8. Similar Species

   Entoloma rhodopolium, is similar in cap color but usually flattens with a sharpish central umbo; it is, of course, a woodland species whereas the Star Pinkgill occurs nearly always in grassland.

History

When in 1881 the German mycologist Max Britzelmayr (1839 - 1909) described this species he gave it the name (its basionym) Agaricus conferendus.

The currently accepted scientific name dates from a 1980 publication in Persoonia (an international mycological journal devoted to the taxonomy of fungi, published by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands) wherein Dutch mycologist Machiel Noordeloos (born 1949) gave it the scientific name Entoloma conferendum.

Synonyms of Entoloma conferendum var. conferendum include Agaricus conferendusBritzelm., Nolanea staurospora Bres., Nolanea conferenda (Britzelm.) Sacc., Rhodophyllus rickenii Romagn., Rhodophyllus staurosporus (Bres.) J. E. Lange, Entoloma staurosporum (Bres.) E. Horak, Entoloma conferendum (Britzelm.) Noordel., and Entoloma conferendum var. rickenii (Romagn.) Bon & Courtec.

Entoloma conferendum var. pusillum (Velen.) Noordel., is very rarely seen in Britain, where it is reported from southern England and Scotland, but it may be more common in parts of southern mainland Europe. This slender variety grows not on soil but rotting wood. Synonyms of Entoloma conferendum var. pusillum include Nolanea pusilla Velen., Rhodophyllus xylophilus J. E. Lange, and Nolanea xylophila (J. E. Lange) P. D. Orton.

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.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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

Photo 4 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 5 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)