New Mushroom Mystery.

Yesterday,  Cheryl and I found a couple of HUGE mushrooms popping up in the rain.   My immediate thought was that they were the Deer Mushroom growing in the area where a tree had been taken down several years ago. ( they grow on dead wood.)  Upon flipping it  over, I was encouraged to discover that the gills were not attached.  But just to be sure....  I better get a spore print. 

Upon getting the spore print, I was thrown for a loop.   The Spore Print was not pink!  What the heck could this be? 

So... Today,  I dusted off my vast library of Mushroom tomes and set out to key out the species.   Keying out mushrooms can be like looking at tea leaves for an amateur like me.   Steps defined as "Brown to pinkish brown."   Pinkish?  Purple-ish?   Step is fragile?    Not Strong?  Tough?   Really is depends on one's perspective.  Or at the very least,  one's library of knowledge and something to compare the specimen to.  

So...  I made the best guess that the "Brownish" spore print was more close to "pink" than to "Chocolate brown or black"  And from there I keyed it out to the Species. Entoloma Vernum.  

A few things checked out:   Early spring mushroom.  Check!   Growing under trees.  Kind of.  Bell shaped and bald  cap.  Check!  Flesh fragile....  I guess so.  Odor: Mealy.   What does Mealy smell like? Cap size: 2-5 cm.  Umm...  This one is almost 13 cm.  Is that close enough?  Spore Print: Pink!  Wait!  What now?   

I may not have worked for Crayola in the last, but I would like to think I know what pink is and is not.   I'm pretty sure, with the knowledge I learned in Kindergarten, that this is not pink.   So... either the book is wrong, or I have the wrong mushroom. 

But wait!   The gills!  What about the gills?   The book says the Gills touch the stem.  Crap!  You can clearly see a ring separating the gills from the stem.  

But wait!  There's More!  As the cap ages, the gills will separate from the stem... appearing to be Free!  Almost Distant!   Well that is a check.  So maybe I'm still on the right path. 

Turns out,  after doing a Google Search for the species.  I discover that there are well over 1000 species.   And I'm sure that several dozen of them appear here in the  United States. So many, in fact, that doing a search I could find no similar looking mushroom photos.  ( Some were Wildly off base..)  There is also the possibility that it could be  Entoloma Griseum.   A close similar species, but the touching gills phenomenon does not match up.  Time to break out the BIG GUNS!

Ever since Christmas, my Elecro- microscope has been waiting patiently in the corner under my desk.   Today, I shall call upon its services to help me solve this Mystery Mushroom! 

Opps!  Forgot to purchase slides for the specimens.   Oh well,  A little bit of clingfilm and a pair of scissors and we are in business!  Let's check the results...

Hmmm.     Very small spores!   Time to amp up the magnitude!  

These don't look polygonal...

Ok... Finally we see the small globby things that should be considered spores.   Now what?  

Let's looks them up and see what we find.  Turns out,  the spores are actually rather angular and polygonal in shape...  With 5, 6 and even 7 sides. 

What they Should look like?

There are a whole lot of other words that are used to describe them.  Of which,  I have no idea what they mean: " Pileipellis a curtis:  Encrusted.  Cystidia Absent."  etc,etc.  

So.. it is possible that the rain, geographic location, and the sheer number of species that are too close to call may play a factor into this difficulty.  I'm pretty sure I'm close, but I will not be eating this one.  This is slightly similar to a Deer mushroom. And Deer mushrooms are good, but if this IS the Entoloma Vernum,  It is reported to be poisonous. ( toxic, tummy ache?  or deadly?   They will not tell me and I will not eat it to find out. ) So "No soup for YOU!"   But it was fun digging out my scientific equipment to pretend I still matter in the realm of Science and Biology.  And, with Morels being a BUST this year, I'm finding my desire to forage and learn about nature becoming more and more insatiable.