The stem is slender, nearly equal, floccose, bulbous at the base.
The spines are slender, pallid, then of the same color as the pileus, equal. The spores are rough, globose, pale, 4µ.
The spore-bearing spines are shown in the upper plants in Figure 370. Two of them show coalesced caps, though the stems are separate. This is the case with H. scrobiculatum and H. spongiosipes. The plants in Figure 370 were collected by the roadside in woods on the State Farm, near Lancaster, and photographed by Dr. Kellerman.
Hydnum scrobiculatum. Fr.
Figure 371.—Hydnum scrobiculatum. Two-thirds natural-size.
Scrobiculatum means marked with a ditch or trench; so called from the rough condition of the cap. The pileus is from one to three inches broad, corky, convex, then plane, sometimes slightly depressed; tough in texture, rusty-brown; the surface of the cap usually quite rough, marked with ridges or trenches, flesh ferruginous.
The spines are short, rusty-brown, becoming dark with age.
The stem is firm, one to two inches long, unequal, rusty-brown, often covered with a dense tomentum.