Part 49

~Hydnum repandum~ Fries

Wood-hedgehog

Cap: 50-75 mm width. Stem: width 10-17 mm; length 45-65 mm.

Description:

Cap: rather thick, fleshy, pinkish buff or tan, paler at its incurved and often lobed margin.

Stem: short, stout and powdered with white roughenings and often attached to the cap to one side of the centre.

Gills: replaced by awl-shaped, pinkish buff spines which are unequal in length and run down the top of the stem.

Flesh: white, firm and with a pleasant smell.

Spore-print: whitish.

Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, smooth, broadly ellipsoid, 7 × 6-7 µm, and not becoming bluish grey in solutions containing iodine.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: The ‘wood-hedgehog’ grows on the ground in mixed woods and is easily recognised by its colour and fleshy texture.

General Information: The closely related, smaller, red-brown species H. rufescens Persoon grows with conifers. Hydnum was formerly a genus which contained several entities, now not considered closely related. Thus the following genera have been delimited in addition to those related to Hydnum repandum and H. rufescens, and Auriscalpium described on p. 158.

Sarcodon: Fruit-body fleshy: spores brown and ornamented with irregular bumps, e.g. S. imbricatum (Fries) Karsten.

Phellodon: Fruit-body tough and fibrous: spores white and ornamented with small spines, e.g. P. niger (Fries) Karsten.

Hydnellum: Fruit-body tough and fibrous: spores brown and ornamented with irregular bumps and bosses, e.g. H. scrobiculatum (Secretan) Karsten.

Bankera: Fruit-body fleshy: spores white and ornamented with small spines, e.g. B. fuliginoalbum (Fries) Pouzar.

Illustrations: Hvass 280; LH 61; NB 153³; WD 53⁴; Z 61.

(ii) Chanterelles and relatives

~Cantharellus cibarius~ Fries

Chanterelle

Cap: 30-100 mm. Stem: width 15-25 mm; length 30-70 mm.

Description:

Cap: convex then flattened, irregularly wavy, more or less top-shaped, depressed and smooth or slightly roughened at centre, egg-yellow or lemon-chrome with flush of orange and with the margin incurved at first.

Stem: short, stout, tapered downwards, fleshy and similarly coloured to the cap.

Gills: replaced by irregularly branched yellow folds which may form a network near the margin and at the apex of the stem over which the folds run down irregularly (decurrent).

Flesh: with pleasant, fruity smell, yellow but paler on drying.

Spore-print: pale cream-colour.