Hedgehog mushroom

Hydnum repandum

Hydnaceae

The sweet tooth — a pale woodland mushroom that wears spines instead of gills, and one of the kinder wild edibles once you have seen the underside.

Wild edible when correctly identified by the spines under the cap. Mycorrhizal — not a block crop.

Parts used: Fruiting body
Traditional notes: Kitchen (correctly identified)
Habitat only: Mycorrhizal with oaks, beeches, and conifers in temperate woods, summer to autumn, on soil. Habitat map, not a pin.

Spines underneath are the field test.
Cream to apricot, on the ground, not a shelf on wood.
If you are new, go with someone who is not.

Safety

Any toothed mushroom you cannot name Raw wild mushrooms

Lore

The French pied-de-mouton is a sheep’s foot; the English hedgehog is the underside. Linnaeus listed it among the mushrooms he trusted. It has never really been farmed. A basket of them is still a quiet kind of luck — less famous than chanterelles, often better in the pan.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.