Mycorrhizal with spruce, pine, beech and oak in coniferous, deciduous and mixed forest, summer to autumn

Edible — mild and pleasant when young, older caps often slightly bitter

• ▸ Terracotta to apricot-orange cap, 3–8 cm across — smaller, more regularly shaped and deeper coloured than the Wood Hedgehog (Hydnum repandum)
• ▸ Soft spines (teeth) instead of gills under the cap, cream to pale orange and 3–5 mm long
• ▸ White to pale ochre stem, centrally attached and firm; flesh white to yellowish
• ▸ Pleasant fruity smell and mild taste that turns slightly bitter with age
• ▸ Cream-coloured spore print

A smaller, deeper-coloured twin of the Wood Hedgehog, once treated as a variety of it. Both are safe to collect: no mushroom with soft spines under the cap is poisonous. The firm flesh makes this a good keeper and market mushroom — pick young specimens, because older ones often turn bitter.