A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Hydnum sp.
Group of small mushrooms growing in moss and leaf litter below oak trees. Pileus smooth and pale orange to cream in color. It is also somewhat centrally depressed. Fertile surface consists of long, cream to pale orange teeth. Stipe is cream to pale orange, slightly stout (bulbous on the larger specimen). Spore print is white. Hydnum species can be mycorhizzal with either hardwoods or conifers and are considered choice edibles. While there are only a handful of named Hydum species in North America, recent evidence points to the existence of hundreds of cryptic species. For this reason, I left the ID at the genus level.
Growing in moss and leaf litter on the side of a ridge (under oaks) in a dense mixed hardwood/coniferous forest in Northwest Georgia (Gordon County), US.
Spotted on Dec 17, 2017
Submitted on Dec 18, 2017
2 Comments
There was a lot of chatter about which species these were on some of the mushroom ID forums on Facebook. :D People seemed to think (from the physical characteristics) that these were either H. repandum or H. umbilicatum. However, I was informed of the rather large pool of cryptic species here in North America. I felt it was safer to leave at the genus level as a result.
Those spines look a little more delicate than the repandums we get here. Interesting. Nice find.