Hydnum coralloides. Scop.
The Coral-like Hydnum. Edible.
Figure 367.—Hydnum coralloides. One-fourth natural size. Entire plant white.
This species grows in large, beautiful tufts on decaying logs, in damp woods. It grows from a common stem, dividing into many branches and then sub-dividing into many long and coral-like shoots, composed wholly of attenuated interlacing branches tapering to a point. The spines grow from one side of the flattened branches. It only needs to be seen once to be recognized as a coral-like mushroom. It is pure white at first, becoming creamy or dingy-white with age. It seems to delight in damp, hilly places, yet I found it to be abundant at Sidney, and to some extent about Bowling Green, Ohio, where it was very level. It is plentiful around Chillicothe. One hickory log, from which the specimen in the figure was taken, furnished me several basketfuls of this plant during three seasons, but at the end of the third season the log crumbled away, mycelium having literally consumed it. It is one of the most beautiful fungi that Dame Nature has been able to fashion. It is said that Elias Fries, when a mere boy, was so impressed with the sight of this beautiful fungus, which grew abundantly in his native woods in Sweden, that he resolved when he grew up to pursue the study of Mycology, which he did; and became one of the greatest authorities of the world in that part of Botany. In fact, he laid the foundation for the study of Basidiomycetes, and this beautiful little coral-like fungus was his inspiration.
It is found principally on beech, maple and hickory in damp woods, from July to frost. I have eaten it for years and esteem it among the best.
Hydnum septentrionale. Fr.
The Northern Hydnum.