Entoloma sericatum

Description

Entoloma sericatum is a species of Fungi in the family Entolomataceae. It can be recognized by a fleeting nitrous odor that quickly changes to farinaceous, a dark yellowish-brown umbonate cap, and a stuffed white stipe up to 20 mm thick. The species is widely distributed throughout Europe.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   15-90 mm wide, conical or hemispherical, widens with age to flat-convex, usually with a wide low hump, rarely slightly depressed in the center, hygrophanous. Pale dirty yellow-brown or grayish-brown in wet weather, translucent-ribbed to mid-radius. In dry weather (when dry) brightens to pale grayish brown. The surface is smooth, glabrous, with small silvery fibrous spots, especially closer to the edge of the cap on young fruiting bodies. The edge can be straight or bent inward or outward.

2. Gills

   25-45 mm, width 3-7 mm, medium frequency, adnate with teeth or notched-adherent, convex or arcuate, then segmented, first white, then pink, with an uneven one-color edge.

3. Spores

   Angular, 5-6-angled (with a lateral angle of view at a relatively small angle), 8.0-10.5 x 6.5-8.0 µm.

4. Spore Print

   Pink.

5. Stem

   40-120 x 3-15 mm, cylindrical, curved, hollow, often deeply embedded in the substrate, pale brownish, with silvery-white striping along the entire length. Above often with a distinct coating, in the middle it is naked, the base of the leg is with white felt.

6. Flesh

   Fragile, the color is identical to the color of the outer surface, whitish closer to the center. The smell is weak, slightly nitrogenous, usually powdery when cut or broken.

7. Habitat

   Moist places in deciduous forests, often on sphagnum or other thick-covered mosses. Forms mycorrhiza with alder, willow, birch, oak, beech. August-November.

Look-Alikes

1. Entoloma lividoalbum

   Differs primarily in lacking an initial nitrous odor and in having a thicker cap context and solid stipe.

2. Entoloma nidorosum

   Has a similar nitrous odor but differs in a centrally depressed, distinctly translucent- striate brownish orange cap, thinner cap context, a hollow stipe less than 10 mm broad, and growth with conifers.

Photo sources:

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

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