Content
Hydnellum suaveolens belongs to the Banker family and the genus Hydnellum. Classified in 1879 by Peter Karsten, the founder of mycology in Finland. Its other names:
- odorous blackberry, since 1772;
- chicken hedgehog, since 1815;
- calodon suaveolens, since 1881;
- phaeodon suaveolens, since 1888;
- northern hedgehog, since 1902;
- hydnellum rickeri, since 1913;
- Sarcodon gravis, since 1939
What does odorous hydrellum look like?
The fruiting bodies that have just appeared have a cone-shaped shape in the form of a thickened cap on a thin stalk.Uneven, can be either rounded or angular, almost square in cross-section or shapeless. The apex is rounded-convex, with wavy irregularities, depressions and tubercles. Afterwards it becomes flat, disc-shaped with a depression in the center, and then cup-shaped, with raised edges. The diameter varies from 3-5 cm to 10-16 cm at maturity.
The surface is velvety-pubescent, matte. The color of young mushrooms is snow-white, then changes to dirty grayish with brown-brown or beige spots in the recesses. In adult specimens, the central part has a coffee-milky, beige-brown, brown-red color, and along the edges it has a white-gray edging.
The flesh is tough, fibrous, colored in layers, from a darker, black-blue stem to a grayish-blue top, with a very pronounced odor of anise or almond.
The leg is pyramidal in shape, uneven, fibrous-hard. The color is blue-brown. Height from 1 to 5 cm, diameter from 2 to 9 cm. The surface is velvety, covered with soft fluff, and when pressed, changes its color to a darker one. The hymenophore is needle-shaped and looks like a thicket of marine polyps. The spines are often located, up to 0.5 cm long, white or grayish, becoming ocher-beige or brown with age. Spore powder is brown.
The pulp when cut has a rich color from grayish-blue to dirty blue
False doubles
Hydnellum odoriferum can be confused with representatives of its own species, especially at a young age.
Hydnellum caeruleum. Inedible. Its flesh is bluish-gray. You can distinguish them by the bright orange stalk of young mushrooms.
This species is distinguished by the soft blue color of the surface of the cap in mature specimens
Hydnellum Peca. Inedible (some sources claim poisonous). It is distinguished by drops of blood-red juice over the entire surface of the fruiting body. Capable of feeding on the bodies of insects trapped in sticky sap.
Drops of juice look like cranberry jam on whipped cream, but you shouldn’t try them
Where does Hydnellum fragrant grow?
Hydnellum fragrant is very rare. Moreover, its habitat is very wide: the entire territory of Eurasia, North America. Prefers spruce and pine forests, as well as mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. It grows in the mountains, next to pines and cedars, on sandy and rocky soils. The mycelium begins to bear fruit at the end of summer, growth continues until frost in October-November.
If a symbiont plant is absent, then these fruiting bodies live like saprotrophs.
With age, a bizarre network of dents may form on the surface of the cap, forming strange patterns
Is it possible to eat fragrant hydnellum?
Hydnellum fragrant is classified as inedible mushrooms due to its hard, bitter pulp and low nutritional value. No toxic substances were found in its composition.
Conclusion
Gidnellum fragrant is an interesting mushroom from the genus Gidnellum and the Banker family. It is found extremely rarely in coniferous lowland and mountain forests, mainly on sandy soils. Forming a symbiosis with trees, it supplies them with the minerals necessary for development. You can meet it in Europe, Russia, Asia, America, in the fall. Inedible, not poisonous. Has similar doppelgängers.
