Hedgehog Mushroom

Hydnum repandum

Edible

Also called sweet tooth, wood hedgehog, pied de mouton.

The hedgehog mushroom is a pale orange to buff woodland mushroom with small spines under the cap where gills would be. It grows on the ground under conifers and hardwoods from summer into fall, and it is one of the easier edible mushrooms to recognize.

The underside of a pale cream hedgehog mushroom covered in short spines, against a dark background

The tell

Soft, crowded spines hang from the underside of the cap instead of gills or pores.

Field marks

What to look at

Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.

Cap
Convex to flat, often irregular or wavy, with an inrolled margin when young. Pale buff, cream or light orange, dry, and smooth to finely suede-like.
Underside
Covered in crowded, soft, pale spines up to about 1/4 inch (2 to 7 mm) long that break off easily. The spines often run a short way down the stem.
Stem
Whitish to pale orange, thick, solid, and often off-center. No ring and no cup.
Flesh
Thick, firm, white to pale orange, slowly staining orange-yellow to brownish where cut or bruised. Smell mild.
Spore print
White to pale cream.
Size
Cap 2 to 7 inches (5 to 17 cm) wide; stem 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) tall.

Where and when

Where and when it grows

Habitat
On the ground in conifer and hardwood forests, often in moss. It forms partnerships with tree roots and can fruit in loose groups or arcs.
Grows on
Soil, near the roots of conifers and hardwoods.
Season
Summer through fall in most of North America; late fall through winter in California.
Range
Across North America. North American collections belong to several closely related Hydnum species.

Lookalikes

What the hedgehog mushroom gets confused with

Each card says how to tell the two apart.

  1. Bitter tooth fungi (Hydnellum and Sarcodon)

    These also have spines, but they are tough, corky or scaly, often brown, bluish or zoned, and many are bitter. The hedgehog mushroom is soft, pale and smooth-capped.

  3. Depressed hedgehog (Hydnum umbilicatum)

    A smaller, thinner relative with a navel-like dip in the cap center and a more slender stem. Field guides list it as edible as well.

Edibility

What the field guides say

Edible

Field guides across North America list the hedgehog mushroom as a choice edible. Older and larger specimens are recorded as becoming bitter. No spined mushroom in North America is known to be deadly, and the soft spines and pale color separate it from the tough, corky tooth fungi.

This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.

FAQ

Questions about the hedgehog mushroom

What does a hedgehog mushroom look like?

A pale orange to buff cap on a short, thick, whitish stem, with soft spines on the underside instead of gills. The cap is often lumpy or irregular, and the flesh is firm and white.

Is the hedgehog mushroom poisonous?

Field guides do not list it as poisonous. They list it as edible and among the most distinctive wild mushrooms because of its spines. Old specimens are described as bitter.

Where do hedgehog mushrooms grow?

On the ground in forests with conifers or hardwoods, often in moss along trails. They fruit from summer through fall in most of North America and through the winter rainy season in California.

Sources

Where these facts come from

  1. Hydnum repandum

    MushroomExpert.com

  2. Hedgehog Mushroom

    Missouri Department of Conservation

  3. Hydnum repandum

    MykoWeb, California Fungi

  4. Hydnum repandum

    Index Fungorum

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