Entoloma

Entoloma is a genus of fungi in the order Agaricales, with the common name of pinkgills. The basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are typically agaricoid (gilled mushrooms), though a minority are gasteroid. All have salmon-pink basidiospores which colour the gills at maturity and are angular (polyhedral) under a microscope. The genus is large, with almost 2000 species worldwide. Most species are saprotrophic, but some are ectomycorrhizal, and a few are parasitic on other fungi. The type, Entoloma sinuatum, is one of several Entoloma species that are poisonous, typically causing mild to severe gastrointestinal illness. In 1838 the Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries classified all pink-spored, gilled fungi into "tribes" or "subtribes", placing those with a Tricholoma-like shape and gills attached to the stem into tribe Entoloma. The small subtribe Leptonia had convex fleshy membranaceous caps, the subtribe Nolanea were slender fungi with bell-shaped caps and hollow stems, and the subtribe Eccilia had umbilicate caps and adnate gills. In 1871 German mycologist Paul Kummer raised these tribes and subtribes to genera. Additional genera were added by subsequent authors.