Entoloma serrulatum
Description
Entoloma can be difficult to identify in the field. The distinguishing feature is the dark blue edge to the gill which is also serrate. The edge color is clear enough though.
Common names: Blue Edge Pinkgill, Saw-gilled Leptonia.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in woods, often in damp areas; occasionally fruiting from moss-covered wood; late summer and fall (or overwinter on the West Coast); widely distributed in North America.
Cap
1-3 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex or slightly depressed; radially fibrillose-silky or finely scaly, especially over the center; black to bluish-black, fading to gray; the margin finely lined in age.
Gills
Attached to the stem; close; whitish or pale bluish-gray at first, becoming pinkish; with black or bluish-black edges; jagged; with frequent short-gills.
Stem
2-4 cm long; 2-3 mm thick; equal; silky at the apex and bald below; hollow; colored like the cap; with white mycelium at the base.
Flesh
Thin; fragile; pale or grayish.
Odor and Taste
Mealy.
Spore Print
Pink.
Microscopic Features
Spores 9-13 x 6.5-8 µ; 5- or 6-sided. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia 40-65 x 10-13 µ; cylindric with subclavate, clavate, or subcapitate apices. Lamellar edge sterile. Pileipellis a cutis with areas of uplifted or ascending, clavate terminal elements; dark brown to blackish in 10% ammonia; pigment intracellular. Clamp connections absent.
Similar Species
Entoloma chalybaeum is a taller species but with a slightly smaller cap diameter; its gills do not have the distinctive black edges that are associated with Entoloma serrulatum.
History
The basionym of this species was defined when, in 1818, the great Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described this species scientifically and gave it the binomial name Agaricus serrulatus. Its currently-accepted scientific name dates from 1967, when American mycologist Lexemuel Ray Hesler (1888 - 1977) transferred this pinkgill (with several others) to the genus Entoloma, thus establishing its scientific name as Entoloma serrulatum.
Entoloma serrulatum has several synonyms including Agaricus serrulatus Fr, Agaricus atrides Lasch, Eccilia atrides (Lasch) P. Kumm., Leptonia serrulata (Fr.) P. Kumm., and Leptonia serrulata var. levipes Maire.
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 serrulatum comes from Latin and means minutely serrate - having tiny projections like the teeth of a saw - and is a reference to the finely serrated edges of the gills of this mushroom.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Jimmie Veitch (jimmiev) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Ak ccm (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Gerhard Koller (Gerhard) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Jimmie Veitch (jimmiev) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 5 - Author: danhartleybcn (Public Domain)
