Finnish hedgehog (Sarcodon fennicus) photo and description

Finnish hedgehog (Sarcodon fennicus)

Hedgehog Finnish is very similar to Rough Hedgehog (Sarcodon scabrosus), in fact, it is listed in Index Fungorum as “Sarcodon scabrosus var. fennicus”, but the debate about whether to take it out separately is still ongoing.

Description:

Ecology: grows in groups on the soil. The information is contradictory: it is indicated that it can grow in mixed forests, prefers beech; it is also indicated that it grows in coniferous forests, forming mycorrhiza with conifers. More common in September-October. Considered very rare.

Hat: 3-10, up to 15 cm in diameter; convex, plano-convex, open with age. In young mushrooms, it is almost smooth, then more or less scaly, especially in the center. The color is brown with a transition to red-brown, much lighter towards the edge. Irregular in shape, often with a wavy-lobed margin.

Hymenophore: descending “spines” 3-5 mm; pale brown, darker at the tips, very dense.

Stem: 2-5 cm long and 1-2,5 cm thick, slightly narrowed towards the base, often curved. Smooth, colors varying from reddish-brown, blue-green, dark olive to almost black towards the base.

Flesh: dense. The colors are different: almost white, light yellow in a hat; blue-green at the bottom of the legs.

Smell: pleasant.

Taste: Unpleasant, bitter or peppery.

Spore powder: brown.

Similarity: Hedgehog Finnish, as noted above, is very similar to Hedgehog rough. You can confuse it with Blackberry (Sarcodon Imbricatus), but the sharp bitter taste will immediately put everything in its place.

For the Finnish Ezhovik, several more features are characteristic:

• scales are much less pronounced than Sarcodon scabrosus (rough)
• leg dark immediately from the cap, red-browni with a transition to greenish-blueoh color, often completely greenish blueaya, and not only at the base, but at the rough blackberry near the cap, the leg is quite light
• if you cut the leg lengthwise, then the Finnish blackberry on the cut will immediately demonstrate dark colors, while in the rough blackberry we will see the transition of colors from pale browngray or gray to greenish, and only at the very base of the stem – greenish-blackth.

Edibility: Unlike Blackberry variegated, this mushroom, like Blackberry rough, is considered inedible due to its bitter taste.