Tooth or spine fungi.
A group of fungi with fruit bodies having the hymenium (spore bearing layer) on tooth or spine-like projections.
Most of the main orders of Basidiomycetes have at least 1 species with tooth and spine fruit bodies.
Orders include the Agaricales, Ariculariales, Boletales, Cantharellales, Corticales, Gomphales, Hymenochaetales, Polyporales, Russulales, and Thelephorales.
Polyporales species can resemble them when the walls between the pores break down leaving irregular ‘teeth’.
Genera include Hydnum, Hydnochaete, Hyphodontia, Hydnophlebia, Mycoacia, Phanerochaete, Phlebia and Steccherinum.
They come in a variety of shapes.
- Cap and stalk – the stipitate tooth fungi.
- Crusts – the resupinate tooth fungi.
Flat crusts from a few mms to 1 m in size with teeth that can be long or just a small bump. - Shelving brackets and occasionally other forms.
These are typical looking mushrooms with teeth instead of gills.
Simple or branched crusts can be very thin with the long spines making ‘waterfalls’.
JF.
