Rough Hericium (Sarcodon scabrosus)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
- Order: Thelephorales
- Family: Bankeraceae (Banker)
- Genus: Sarcodon (Sarcodon)
- Species: Sarcodon scabrosus (Rough Hericium)
It is believed that the Rough Hericium may be quite widespread in Europe. The fungus is easily recognizable by several characteristic features: a brown to reddish-brown or even purple-brown cap with scales pressed in the center and diverging as it grows; greenish leg is much darker towards the base; bitter taste.
Description:
Ecology: Rough Hericium belongs to the group of mycorrhizal species with coniferous and hard-leaved tree species; grows alone or in groups; in summer and autumn.
Hat: 3-10 cm, less often up to 15 cm in diameter; convex, flat-convex, often with an implicit depression in the center. Irregular shape. Dry. In young mushrooms, either hairs or scales are visible on the cap. With age, the scales become well distinguishable, larger and pressed in the center, smaller and lagging - closer to the edge. The color of the cap is from reddish brown to purple brown. The edge of the cap can often be curved, even slightly wavy. In shape, it may resemble an epicycloid.
Hymenophore: descending "spines" (sometimes they are called "teeth") 2-8 mm; pale brown, in young mushrooms with whitish tips, darken with age, become saturated brown.
Leg: 4-10 cm long and 1-2.5 cm thick. Dry, no ring. The base of the leg is often deep underground; when collecting the mushroom, it is advisable to take out the entire leg: it will help you easily distinguish the rough hedgehog from the variegated one. The fact is that the stalk of a rough hedgehog near the cap is smooth (when the “spines” end) and rather light, pale pale brown. The farther from the cap, the darker the color of the leg; in addition to brown, green, blue-green and even bluish-black color appears at the very base of the leg.
Flesh: soft. The colors are different: almost white, whitish-pinkish in the cap; and in the leg from gray to black or greenish, greenish-black at the bottom of the leg.
Smell: mild powdery or odorless.
Taste: bitter, sometimes not immediately apparent.
Spore powder: brown.
Similarity: Rough herd's mane can only be confused with similar species of herpes. It is especially similar to the speckled Hericium (Sarcodon Imbricatus), in which the flesh, although slightly bitter, but this bitterness completely disappears after boiling, and the speckled Sheep's Man is slightly larger than the Coarse Sheep's Man.
Edible: Unlike the speckled hedgehog, this mushroom is considered inedible due to its bitter taste.