Entolomatoid Mushrooms

Late summer and fall may be peak mushroom seasons on PEI, but spring has fungi to find, too! While checking my go-to spots for Morels this week, I found lots of these Entolomatoid Mushrooms (Family Entolomataceae).

I often ignore LBMs (little brown mushrooms) as being too hard to identify and above my skill level. However, as I gain experience in mushroom identification, I’ve started looking for clues that point to the Family. If you’ve attended any of my workshops, you’ll know I teach this same approach for plant identification; it’s a good way to build observation skills, understand relationships, and start to narrow down unknown species. Think of it as the biological equivalent of phonetic reading.

The Entoloma Family includes hundreds of species that share some traits, most notably pinkish spore prints (inset photo), which give this group its common name: Pinkgills. Entolomataceae isn’t the only fungal family with pink spore prints, but it’s a good place to start if that’s what you find.

Next, look at the gills. In this Family, the gills are attached to the stem rather than separate from it. (That attachment can vary from gills that run partway down the stem to those that just connect to the stem at the top, as seen here). Pink spores and attached gills are strong indications of the Entoloma Family, but if you need to be certain, you’ll have to look at those spores under a microscope: if they’re angular or lumpy rather than roundish and smooth, you have an Entolomatoid Mushroom.

Positive identification of this group to genus and species usually requires more work with a microscope, and more expertise than I currently have. That said, this particular mushroom’s brown colour, conical cap, gill colour and arrangement, and spring appearance suggest it’s one of the Early Spring Entolomas (Nolanea sp.). They are not edible, and – because I’m not positive of this mushroom’s ID – I wouldn’t eat it anyway.

There are edible members of the Entoloma Family, such as the Sweetbread Mushroom (Clitopilus prunulus) and delicious, parasitic Shrimp of the Woods (Entoloma abortivum), both included in this blog. But I’m more interested in the ecology and identification of these important parts of PEI Untamed!