Names, authorship and dates from Index Fungorum.

• BasidiomycotaPhylum
• └─ AgaricomycetesClass
• └─ CantharellalesOrder
• └─ HydnaceaeFamily
• └─ HydnumGenus

Higher ranks from Catalogue of Life (COL26.9 XR).

Lifestylemycorrhiza

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

⚠ Before you pickWild fungi may be taken in small quantities for your own use (§39(3) BNatSchG) — but not in nature reserves or national parks, on closed land or on farmland in use, and never for sale (§39(4)). In Bavaria this right is anchored in Art. 141(3) of the state constitution and is limited to locally customary amounts; the competent authority is the district nature-conservation authority (untere Naturschutzbehörde). Local signs and ordinances come first.

Species protection from BArtSchV Annex 1 and §2(1), retrieved 2026-10-15; Red List from Dämmrich et al. (2016) (BfN / Rote-Liste-Zentrum). Not legal advice — local rules and signage may be stricter. BArtSchV Annex 1 · Red List data

• edible when cooked
• edible mushroom

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.