Pine Spike

Description:

Mushroom with a tan, smooth, and slimy pileus. Cream to honey-colored gills are nearly decurrent with lamellulae (alternating short gills) . Stipe is cream to honey brown, slightly ridged, and hollowed out (from insects?) near its base. Spore print is black to dark brown. Black spores are also present on specimen on location Chroogomphus species are often called pine-spikes or spike-caps due to their shape and relationship with pine trees. Chroogomphus species are a part of the Gomphidiaceae family and are more closely related to the agaricoid boletes (Suillineae suborder) than to the "true" gilled fungi.

Habitat:

Growing in leaf debris on the side of a ridge in a dense mixed hardwood/pine forest. Northwest Georgia.