Deadly
Destroying Angel
Amanita bisporigera
Sliced lengthwise, a young Amanita shows the outline of a cap, gills and stem inside a white sac. An aborted Entoloma is solid and marbled pink inside with no mushroom outline.
Shrimp of the Woods
Entoloma abortivum
Edible
Also called aborted entoloma, aborting entoloma, hunter's heart.
Shrimp of the woods is the name for the lumpy, whitish masses that form where Entoloma abortivum meets honey mushrooms. The same fungus also produces a gray, gilled mushroom with pink spores. Both forms appear in eastern hardwood forests in fall.
Entoloma abortivum
Photo coming
The tell
Whitish, lumpy, irregular balls with marbled pinkish insides, growing near honey mushrooms.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Aborted form: irregular, lumpy whitish to pinkish-gray balls with no cap, gills or stem. Gilled form: convex to flat, gray to gray-brown, dry and finely silky.
- Underside
- Aborted form: none. Gilled form: gray gills that turn pink as the spores mature, running slightly down the stem.
- Stem
- Aborted form: none, or a short stub. Gilled form: grayish, fibrous, with white mycelium at the base. No ring and no cup.
- Flesh
- Aborted form: firm, white with pinkish marbled streaks when cut. Gilled form: thin, white to grayish. Both smell mealy, like fresh flour.
- Spore print
- Salmon pink (gilled form).
- Size
- Aborted form 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) across. Gilled form cap 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) wide; stem 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) tall.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Hardwood and mixed forests, on the ground near stumps and rotting logs, often in the same patch as honey mushrooms.
- Grows on
- Soil and buried wood, together with honey mushroom (Armillaria) mycelium.
- Season
- Late summer through fall.
- Range
- Eastern North America, from the Great Lakes and Northeast south to the Gulf states.
Lookalikes
What the shrimp of the woods gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Entoloma sinuatum
Photo coming
ToxicLivid Pinkgill
Entoloma sinuatum
A larger, pink-spored Entoloma with a paler, often yellowish-gray cap. It is one reason the gilled form of shrimp of the woods is rarely collected.
Edible when pure white insideGem-Studded Puffball
Lycoperdon perlatum
Rounder and covered in small spines or warts, with a stem-like base and a pure white, uniform interior that later turns to olive-brown spore dust.
Edible when well cookedHoney Mushroom
Armillaria mellea
Often growing right beside it. Honey mushrooms have honey-colored caps, white gills, a ring on most species and a white spore print.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Edible
Field guides list the aborted form as edible. The gilled form is also reported edible, but toxic gray, pink-spored Entoloma species look like it. How the lumps form has been debated. Older guides say honey mushrooms attack the Entoloma; a 2001 study by Czederpiltz, Volk and Burdsall found the reverse.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the shrimp of the woods
What is shrimp of the woods?
It is the aborted form of Entoloma abortivum: whitish, lumpy balls that form when the fungus interacts with honey mushrooms. The lumps have firm, pinkish-marbled flesh and a mealy smell.
What does shrimp of the woods look like?
Irregular white to pinkish-gray balls 1 to 4 inches across, often in clusters near rotting wood. Gray, gilled mushrooms of the same species and honey mushrooms often grow in the same patch.
Where does shrimp of the woods grow?
In eastern North American hardwood forests, on the ground around stumps and logs where honey mushrooms grow. It appears in late summer and fall.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Entoloma abortivum
MushroomExpert.com
- Entoloma abortivum
Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)
- Entoloma abortivum
Index Fungorum
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