''Entoloma hochstetteri'', also known as the blue pinkgill, sky-blue mushroom or similar names, is a species of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

that is native to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The small mushroom is a distinctive all-blue colour, while the

gills A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

have a slight reddish tint from the spores. The blue colouring of the

fruit body In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is due to

azulene Azulene is an organic compound and an isomer of naphthalene. Naphthalene is colourless, whereas azulene is dark blue. Two terpenoids, vetivazulene (4,8-dimethyl-2-isopropylazulene) and guaiazulene (1,4-dimethyl-7-isopropylazulene), that feature ...

pigments. Whether ''Entoloma hochstetteri'' is poisonous or not is unknown. The

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name for the mushroom is werewere-kōkako, because its colour is similar to the blue wattle of the

kōkako Kōkako (''Callaeas'') are two species of endangered forest birds which are endemic to New Zealand, the North Island kōkako (''Callaeas wilsoni'') and the presumably extinct South Island kōkako (''Callaeas cinereus''). They are both slate-gre ...

bird. This species was one of six native fungi featured in a set of fungal stamps issued in New Zealand in 2002. It is also featured on the

New Zealand fifty-dollar note The New Zealand fifty-dollar note is a New Zealand banknote. It is issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and since 1999 has been a polymer banknote. It was first issued in 1983. The note originally had an image of Queen Elizabeth II on th ...

. With ''E. hochstetteris inclusion, this makes it the only banknote in the world which features a mushroom on it. In a 2018 poll, ''E. hochstetteri'' was ranked first by

Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute whose focus of research is the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability. History Manaaki Whenua was originally part of the Department of Scientific and Industr ...

for its pick as New Zealand's national fungus.

Taxonomy

The species was first described as ''Cortinarius hochstetteri'' in 1866 by the Austrian mycologist Erwin Reichardt, before being given its current binomial in 1962 by

Greta Stevenson Greta Barbara Stevenson (10 June 1911 – 18 December 1990) was a New Zealand botanist and mycologist. She described many new species of Agaricales (gilled mushrooms). Background and education Stevenson was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the ol ...

. It is named after the German-Austrian naturalist

Ferdinand von Hochstetter Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Ritter von Hochstetter (30 April 1829 – 18 July 1884) was a German-Austrian geologist. Career Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary at Maulbronn, Ferdinand proceeded to the University o ...

. In 1976

Egon Horak Egon Horak (born Innsbruck in 1937) is an Austrian mycologist who has described more than 1000 species of fungi, including many from the Southern Hemisphere, particularly New Zealand and South America. He was an executive editor of the scientific ...

combined ''Entoloma hochstetteri'' and '' Entoloma aeruginosum'' from Japan with '' Entoloma virescens'', first described from the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

in Japan. In 1989 S. Dhancholia recorded ''E. hochstetteri'' in India. In 1990

Tsuguo Hongo was a Japanese mycologist who specialized in the biogeography and taxonomy of Agaricales. Hongo entered the Department of Biology at what is now Hiroshima University in 1943, where he studied botany until graduating in 1946 with a B.Sc. Hongo ...

from Japan examined ''E. hochstetteri'' and ''E. aeruginosum'' and concluded that they were different taxa, because of difference in the size of the spores and the shape of the pseudocystidia. In 2008 Horak recognized ''E. hochstetteri'' as a different species from ''E. virescens'', while noting that "it is open to speculation" whether taxa such as ''E. virescens'' are the same species. A similar mushroom is found in Australia and mycologists differ as to whether it is ''E. hochstetteri'', ''E. virescens'' or a separate species.

Description

''Entoloma hochstetteri'' has a small delicate

epigeous Epigeal, epigean, epigeic and epigeous are biological terms describing an organism's activity above the soil surface. In botany, a seed is described as showing epigeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed expand, throw off the ...

(above-ground)

(

basidiocarp In fungi, a basidiocarp, basidiome, or basidioma () is the sporocarp of a basidiomycete, the multicellular structure on which the spore-producing hymenium is borne. Basidiocarps are characteristic of the hymenomycetes; rusts and smuts do not ...

). The

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

may be up to 4 cm (1.4 in) in diameter and conical in shape. The cap colour is indigo-blue with a green tint, and is fibrillose. The cap margin is striate and rolled inwards. The gill attachment is

adnexed In mycology, a lamella, or gill, is a papery hymenophore rib under the cap of some mushroom species, most often agarics. The gills are used by the mushrooms as a means of spore dispersal, and are important for species identification. The atta ...

emarginate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

, gills are thin and 3–5 mm wide, essentially the same colour as the cap, sometimes with a yellow tint. The cylindrical stipe (stalk) is up to 5 cm (2 in) long by 0.5 cm thick, fibrillose and stuffed. The

spore print 300px, Making a spore print of the mushroom ''Volvariella volvacea'' shown in composite: (photo lower half) mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper; (photo upper half) cap removed after 24 hours showing pinkish-tan spore print. A 3.5-centimeter ...

is reddish-pink. The

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s are 9.9–13.2 by 11.8–13.2 μm, tetrahedric in shape,

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none. Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is ...

, smooth and thin-walled. The

basidia A basidium () is a microscopic sporangium (a spore-producing structure) found on the hymenophore of fruiting bodies of basidiomycete fungi which are also called tertiary mycelium, developed from secondary mycelium. Tertiary mycelium is highly-c ...

are 35.2–44.2 by 8.8–13.2 µm, club-shaped,

, and with two or four sterigmata.Dhancholia S. (1989).
''Entoloma hochstetteri'' (Agaricales) - a new record from India
''Current Science'' 58 (3): 146–7.

Mythology

The

Ngāi Tūhoe Ngāi Tūhoe (), often known simply as Tūhoe, is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It takes its name from an ancestral figure, Tūhoe-pōtiki. ''Tūhoe'' is a Māori-language word meaning "steep" or "high noon". Tūhoe people also bear the sobriquet ...

describe that the

Kōkako Kōkako (''Callaeas'') are two species of endangered forest birds which are endemic to New Zealand, the North Island kōkako (''Callaeas wilsoni'') and the presumably extinct South Island kōkako (''Callaeas cinereus''). They are both slate-gre ...

bird (''Callaeas wilsoni'') got its blue wattles from it rubbing its cheek against the mushroom. Thus giving the mushroom the title of ''werewere-kōkako''.

Habitat and distribution

''Entoloma hochstetteri'' is common in forests throughout

, where it grows on soil among litter in broadleaf/

podocarp Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Pre ...

forest. It fruits in January to July. It was also reported from India in 1989 and from Australia, though it is unclear whether these are the same species or whether ''E. hochstetteri'' is endemic to New Zealand. Attempts of lab cultivation of ''Entoloma hochstetteri'' have been made, to no avail.

Toxicity

Although many members of the genus ''

Entoloma ''Entoloma'' is a large genus of terrestrial pink-gilled mushrooms, with about 1,000 species. Most have a drab appearance, pink gills which are attached to the stem, a smooth thick cap, and angular spores. Many entolomas are saprobic but some ...

'' are poisonous, the toxicity of this species is unknown. It is being investigated to see if its

gene cluster A gene family is a set of homologous genes within one organism. A gene cluster is a group of two or more genes found within an organism's DNA that encode similar polypeptides, or proteins, which collectively share a generalized function and are o ...

that is responsible for blue colouring might be used to manufacture a natural blue food dye.

References

External links

* *
More information from the Landcare Research NZFUNGI database
* ''Entoloma hochstetteri'' discussed on ''RNZ Critter of the Week''
2 December 2016
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2602685 Entolomataceae Fungi of New Zealand Fungi of India