Entoloma caccabus

[Basidiomycota > Agaricales > Entolomataceae > Entoloma . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Full disclosure: I find no record of anyone else documenting Entoloma caccabus in North America, so take this report with a grain (or a shaker-full, if you prefer) of salt. But my collection, from central Illinois, does appear to match the European species fairly well, and it does not seem to line up so well with anything I find in North American Entoloma literature. The crucial identifying features include a fairly small, faintly lined, brown cap that is initially planoconvex but develops a shallow central depression, in the middle of which a shallow hump remains; the fairly distant gills; the smooth stem; the mealy odor and taste; and microscopic features--including heterodiametric spores, intracellular pigment in the pileipellis, the absence of hymenial cystidia, and the presence of clamp connections.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously in bare soil under northern red oak, white oak, hop hornbeam, and persimmon; July; Coles County, Illinois.

Cap: 1-3 cm; planoconvex with a slightly incurved margin at first, becoming shallowly depressed, with a wavy margin and a small umbo; moist; bald; dark grayish brown to dark yellowish brown at first, fading markedly to medium yellowish brown (but often retaining a darker center); the margin becoming slightly translucent-lined with age.

Gills: Attached to the stem; nearly distant; whitish at first, becoming pink; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 2.5-3.5 cm long; 2-4 mm thick; equal; dry; bald or finely silky; whitish to grayish or brownish.

Flesh: Thin; insubstantial; watery whitish to brownish.

Odor and Taste: Mealy.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Pink.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 6-8 µ; 5- to 6-sided; heterodiametric or occasionally nearly isodiametric; angular; smooth; hyaline. Hymenial cystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 5-12.5 µ wide, brown to brownish in 10% ammonia, with intracellular pigment. Clamp connections present.

REFERENCES: (Kühner, 1954) Noordeloos, 1979. (Moser, 1983; Noordeloos, 1981; Noordeloos, 1988; Noordeloos, 2008.) Herb. Kuo 07090803.

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Spores

Clamp connection in pileipellis

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2014, January). Entoloma caccabus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/entoloma_caccabus.html