🍄 Wood Hedgehog
Hydnum repandum · Hydnaceae
🔍 Identify it without mistakes
An excellent edible mushroom unique in its kind: the underside of its cap bears neither gills nor pores, but SPINES (small, brittle, crowded tooth-like structures), a key feature that immediately rules out any confusion with a toxic species.
- cream to beige cap, sometimes orangeish, irregular, bumpy, often with a lobed margin
- underside with brittle, crowded, cream-white SPINES, slightly running down the stem — no gills, no pores
- stocky, whitish stem, often off-center
- thick, white flesh turning orangeish when cut, brittle
- white to cream spore print
- slightly bitter taste in older specimens, which should be discarded
⚠️ Not to be confused with
To tell them apart: the spines under the cap are a unique structure among large forest mushroom genera; the few related species (Hydnum rufescens, Hydnum albidum) are all edible, though of variable culinary quality
🍽️ Eating it
Preparation : always cooked; choose young specimens, as old ones become bitter and spongy; great pan-fried or cooked with garlic and parsley
No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.