Livid pinkgill

Description

The livid pinkgill (dzwonkówka trująca) is a large, stout mushroom with a whitish to grey-ochre, silky-shiny cap usually 5–20 cm across. The gills are whitish or cream in young fruiting bodies, then turn pink, and the stem is thick, white and has no ring. The smell is mealy or unpleasant, rancid.

It grows from late spring to autumn in deciduous forests under beeches and oaks, on clay and calcareous soils, and also in parks, on meadows and by roads, often in groups. In Poland it is not common, but in Europe it is one of the more frequent causes of mushroom poisoning.

It is most easily confused with the St George's mushroom, clouded agaric and the miller; they sometimes grow side by side. The pinkish spore print and gills turning pink are a clue, but you must not rely on a single feature. If you are not certain of the species, do not collect or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 5–20 cm (up to 30 cm recorded); the largest in the genus. Hemispherical with an inrolled margin when young, then convex to flat, often with a blunt umbo in the centre and a wavy margin. Colour ivory, whitish, grey-ochre, grey-brown with age. Surface silky-shiny, smooth, bare, slightly fibrous, slightly slimy.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills moderately crowded or widely spaced, sinuate (notched with a tooth) at the stem, almost free; at first whitish or yellowish-white, then cream, turning pink and reddish as the spores mature. A groove (a so-called "moat") is visible around the stem.

Stem

Height 4–20 cm (5–12 cm according to some descriptions), thickness 0.5–4 cm, cylindrical, massive, white, solid when young, then spongy, slightly furrowed, shiny; no ring. A white felty mycelium at the base, the stem is sometimes bulbous.

Flesh

White, shiny, not changing colour when cut. Smell and taste described as mealy or mealy-cucumber, often also unpleasant, rancid. Do not taste it; do not taste the flesh of this or any suspicious mushroom.

Spore print and spores

Spore print pink: yellowish-pink or red-brown (descriptions give different colours). Spores irregularly polygonal (hexagonal in outline), smooth, about 8–11 × 7–9.5 µm.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Descriptions treat the ecology differently: a mycorrhizal fungus, or a species of a mostly saprotrophic genus, with ectomycorrhiza with willow recorded. Grows under beeches and oaks, less often birches, on clay or calcareous soils, also in parks and on grassy ground near forests.

Distribution. Europe (more frequent in the southern and central parts), North America, also Asia Minor, Iran, China. In Poland not common; grows singly or in groups, sometimes in fairy rings; from the foothills to the alpine zone, also on wet meadows, pastures and by roads. Not legally protected in Poland; Red List 2006: I (insufficient data).

Fruiting. From late May to autumn; in Europe mainly late summer and autumn.

What can it be confused with?

• Calocybe gambosa (St George's mushroom) — Gills crowded and cream. Confusion is especially easy with young specimens, and the two mushrooms may grow side by side.
• Clitocybe nebularis (clouded agaric) — Sometimes confused; gills whitish, running down the stem, smell strong, mealy, rancid.
• Clitopilus prunulus (the miller) — Greyish-white, felty cap and whitish gills running down the stem, which turn pink only with age; a frequent cause of poisonings in France.
• Agaricus campestris (field mushroom) — Has a ring on the stem, pink gills darkening to chocolate-brown and a dark brown spore print.
• Entoloma clypeatum (shield pinkgill) — Similar in appearance, but grows under trees of the rose family (hawthorn, apple, plum, pear).
• Knights (Tricholoma), e.g. T. columbetta — General habit similar; knights have a white spore print, pinkgills a pinkish one with angular spores. T. columbetta has a satiny cap and stem and a faint, non-mealy smell.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• It accounts for about 10% of all mushroom poisonings in Europe; in 1983 in Geneva alone 70 people needed hospital treatment.
• In the Dijon region it was called "le grand empoisonneur de la Côte-d'Or" (the great poisoner of the Côte-d'Or); Lucien Quélet himself, who described it, was poisoned by it.
• The epithet sinuatum means "wavy", and the genus name comes from Greek: entos "inside" and loma "fringe" (from the inrolled margin).
• It is the type species of the genus Entoloma, which has more than 1900 species.