Major Groups > Toothed Mushrooms

MushroomExpert.Com

Toothed Mushrooms  

[ Basidiomycota . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Mushrooms with spines or "teeth" do not form a natural taxonomic group, but putting them together simplifies identification; while the toothed mushrooms range widely in their appearance, the presence of the spines helps separate them from the thousands of other mushrooms that lack spines.

Some of these mushrooms, like Auriscalpium vulgare, are fairly easy to identify—but others can make for a frustrating experience. I find many species of Hydnellum to be very difficult to separate (figuratively and literally, since their flesh is so tough). The key below will lead you to a species in a few instances, but is primarily designed to sort out the various genera of toothed mushrooms.


Toothed Mushroom Pages

Auriscalpium vulgare
Climacodon pulcherrimus
Climacodon septentrionalis
Fuscopostia fragilis
Hericium
   Hericium abietis
   Hericium americanum
   Hericium coralloides
   Hericium erinaceus
Hydnellum
   Hydnellum aurantiacum
   Hydnellum caeruleum
   Hydnellum concrescens
   Hydnellum spongiosipes
   Hydnellum suaveolens
Hydnum aerostatisporum
Hydnum alboaurantiacum
Hydnum oregonense
Hydnum repandum
Hydnum subtilior
Mycorraphium adustum
Phellodon alboniger
Phellodon confluens
Pseudohydnum gelatinosum
Radulomyces copelandii
Sarcodon imbricatus
Sarcodon scabrosus
Spongipellis pachyodon
Steccherinum ochraceum

 

Hericium erinaceus

Hydnellum caeruleum

Steccherinum ochraceum

Hydnum aerostatisporum



Key to Genera (and a Few Species) of Toothed Mushrooms


1.Growing on the cones of conifers or on conifer duff composed of cone fragments.

1.Growing elsewhere.
2


2.Growing on wood.
3

2.Growing on the ground.
13


3.Mushroom small (1-6 cm across), gelatinous and translucent; cap whitish to grayish or brownish in age, spatula-shaped or tongue-shaped; growing on the wood or woody debris of conifers.

3.Not as above.
4


4.Mushroom a patch of tiny orange spines, usually with a folded-over cap edge but without a fully developed cap; on the wood of hardwoods.

4.Not as above.
5


5.Mushroom without a distinct cap, consisting of either a clump of hanging spines, or a branched structure with spines hanging from the branches.

5.Cap present.
6


6.Flesh not white.
7

6.Flesh white.
8


7.Flesh brick red; growing on fir or hemlock in western North America.
Echinodontium tinctorium

7.Flesh brown; growing on Atlantic White Cedar on the Atlantic Coast.
Echinodontium ballouii


8.Underside of cap not completely and regularly toothed; pores present along the margin or overall when the mushroom is young; spines not more or less equal in length, or spines concentrated near the point of attachment to the wood.

8.Not as above.
9


9.Cap matted-hairy, shell-shaped (reminiscent of a Trametes), whitish to pale tan or faintly orangish; teeth creamy to brownish; KOH red on cap surface and flesh; cap hyphae with double clamp connections.

9.Not as above.
10


10.Growing in overlapping shelves (rarely alone); edges of caps not blackening in age; usually found on stumps, dead trunks, large logs, or growing from the wounds of living trees; mature caps often large (over 10 cm across).
11

10.Growing alone or in small clusters but not shelf-like; edges of caps blackening in age; usually found on dead branches, sticks, and small logs; mature caps under 8 cm across.
12


11.Cap surface often with tooth-like scales (see the illustration on the linked page); presence in North America debatable but if present, rare.
Creolophus cirrhatus

11.Cap surface hairy or roughened but lacking tooth-like scales; common and widely distributed in northern and northeastern North America (possibly elsewhere).


12.Mature cap up to 8 cm across; spores cylindrical.

12.Mature cap 2 cm across or less; spores elliptical.
Mycorrhaphium adustulum


13.Spore print white.
14

13.Spore print brown.
15


14.Flesh tough (corky or leathery).
Phellodon

14.Flesh soft.
Hydnum & Bankera


15.Flesh tough (corky or leathery); mushroom sometimes engulfing debris as it grows.

15.Flesh soft; stem not usually short and squat; mushroom not engulfing debris.
Sarcodon



References


Baird, R. E. (1986a). Type studies of North American and other related taxa of stipitate hydnums: Genera Bankera, Hydnellum, Phellodon, Sarcodon. Berlin: J. Cramer. 89 pp.

Baird, R. E. (1986b). Study of the stipitate hydnums from the southern Appalachian Mountains—Genera: Bankera, Hydnellum, Phellodon, Sarcodon. Berlin: J. Cramer. 156 pp.

Baird, R. E. & S. R. Khan (1986). The stipitate hydnums (Thelephoraceae) of Florida. Brittonia 38: 171–184.

Coker, W. C. (1919). The hydnums of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 34: 163–197.

Coker, W. C. & A. H. Beers (1951). The stipitate hydnums of the eastern United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 211 pp.

Conde, L. F. & Wolf, F. A. (1972). A large sporophore of Hericium erinaceus. Mycologia 64: 1187–1189.

Gilbertson, R. L. & K. K. Nakasone (2003). New taxa of Hawaiian corticoid fungi are described with keys to Crustoderma, Radulomyces, and Scopuloides. Mycologia 95: 467–473.

Ginns, J. (1985). Hericium in North America: Cultural characteristics and mating behavior. Canadian Journal of Botany 63: 1551–1563.

Ginns, J. & L. Millman (2011). Mysterious Asian beauty conquers eastern Massachusetts. Fungi 4: 61-63.

Hall, D. & D. E. Stuntz (1971). Pileate Hydnaceae of the Puget Sound area. I. White-spored genera: Auriscalpium, Hericium, Dentinum and Phellodon. Mycologia 63: 1099–1128.

Hall, D. & D. E. Stuntz (1972). Pileate Hydnaceae of the Puget Sound Area III. Brown-Spored Genus: Hydnellum. Mycologia 64: 560–590.

Harrison, K. A. (1973). The genus Hericium in North America. The Michigan Botanist 12:177–194.

Harrison, K. A. & D. W. Grund (1984a). A new stipitate Hydnum of Nova Scotia. Mycotaxon 20: 95–99.

Harrison, K. A. (1984b). Creolophus in North America. Mycologia 76: 1121–1123.

Harrison, K. A. & D. W. Grund (1987a). Preliminary keys to the terrestrial stipitate hydnums of North America. Mycotaxon 28: 419–426.

Harrison, K. A. & D. W. Grund (1987b). Differences in European and North American stipitate hydnums. Mycotaxon 28: 427–435.

Hjortstam, B., B. M. Spooner & S. G. Oldridge (1990). Some Aphyllophorales and Heterobasidiomycetes from Sabah, Malaysia. Kew Bulletin 45: 303–322.

Johannesson, H., S. Ryman, H. Lundmark & E. Danell (1999). Sarcodon imbricatus and S. squamosus—two confused species. Mycological Research 103: 1447–1452.

Leal-Dutra, C., G. W. Griffith, M. A. Neves, D. J. McLaughlin, E. G. McLaughlin, L. A. Clasen & B. T. M. Dentinger (2020). Reclassification of Pterulaceae Corner (Basidiomycota: Agaricales) introducing the ant-associated genus Myrmecopterula gen. nov., Phaeopterula Henn. and the corticoid Radulomycetaceae fam. nov. IMA Fungus 11: 2.

Maas Geesteranus, R. A. (1967). Notes on hydnums—VII. Persoonia 5: 1–13.

Maas Geesteranus, R. A. & J. A. Nannfeldt (1969). The genus Sarcodon in Sweden in the light of recent investigations. Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 63: 401–440.

Maas Geesteranus, R. A. (1974). Studies in the genera Irpex and Steccherinum. Persoonia 7: 443–581.

Moreno, G., M. N. Blanco, I. Olariaga & J. Checa (2007). Climacodon pulcherrimus a badly known tropical species, present in Europe. Cryptogamie, Mycologie 28: 3–11.

Nakasone, K. K. (2001). Taxonomy of the genus Radulon. Harvard Papers in Botany 6: 163–177.

Nakasone, K. K., B. Ortiz-Santana & S. -H. He (2021). Taxonomic studies of crust fungi with spines in Radulomyces, Sarcodontia, and the new genus Noblesia. Mycological Progress 20: 1479–1501.

Niskanen, T., K. Liimatainen, J. Nuytinck, P. Kirk, I. O. Ibarguren, R. Garibay-Orijel, L. Norvell, S. Huhtinen, I. Kytövuori, J. Ruotsalainen, T. Niemelä, J. F. Ammirati & L. Tedersoo (2018). Identifying and naming the currently known diversity of the genus Hydnum, with an emphasis on European and North American taxa. Mycologia 110: 890–918.

Parfitt, D., J. Hynes, H. J. Rogers & L. Boddy (2005). New PCR assay detects rare tooth fungi in wood where traditional approaches fail. Mycological Research 109: 1187–1194.

Ryvarden, L. (2001). The genus Auriscalpium. Harvard Papers in Botany 6: 193–198.

Swenie, R., Baroni, T. J. & P. B. Matheny (2018). Six new species and reports of Hydnum (Cantharellales) from eastern North America. MycoKeys 42: 35–72.

Wald, P., S. Pitkanen & L. Boddy (2004). Interspecific interactions between the rare tooth fungi Creolophus cirrhatus, Hericium erinaceus and H. coralloides and other wood decay species in agar and wood. Mycological Research 108: 1447–1457.



This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.



Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2010, May). Toothed mushrooms. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/toothed.html

© MushroomExpert.Com