Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them / A Selection of Thirty Native Food Varieties Easily Recognizable by their Marked Individualities, with Simple Rules for the Identification of Poisonous Species

by W. Hamilton Gibson

PLATE XXVII
THE HEDGEHOG MUSHROOM

Hydnum repandum

Pileus: Diameter two to five inches, generally irregular, with the stem off centre. Color varying from pale buff, the typical hue, to a distinct bricky red.

Spines: Beneath the cap, one-quarter to one-third inch in length; soft, creamy in tint, becoming darker in old specimens.

Flesh: Creamy white, solid.

Stem: Often set eccentrically into the cap; proportionately thick and short.

Taste: Slightly aromatic.

Habitat: Woods or shaded places in rich soil, often in clusters.

Season: Summer and autumn.