Hydnellum is a tooth fungus most often recognized by large fruitbodies, and in times of high humidity, a distinctive colored liquid that may accumulate on the surface. They can be quite tough and often bitter-tasting so this group of mushrooms has little to no culinary value.

The growth rate and physical appearance can be significantly affected by environmental conditions like rain, humidity, temperature, and wind. Another reason for the highly variable appearance of different species of Hydnellum is that species within the genus are not all closely related. Now that genetic sequencing is affordable to more researchers, they are now able to calculate similarity amoung various species. Now researchers are finding again and again is that species that look similar may come from very different lineages. This is known as convergent evolution; where different organisms evolve to have similar characteristics.

There are many examples of this in all forms of life but some notable examples of mushrooms are:

Trufflized mushrooms – many lines of mushrooms evolved like truffles, to live underground

Puffballs – Many different mushroom lines evolved to create spores internally and explode into a cloud of spores when crushed

Russula – This is a genus of gilled mushrooms however they evolved seperately from most other gilled mushrooms

Hydnellum peckii

Hydnellum

Hydnellum aurantiacum

 

Hydnellum suaveolens