Truffle Genus: Hydnangium

Hydnangium carneum basidiospore scale = 10 µm

Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Agaricales Family: Hydnangiaceae

Spore Characters

Surface: Ornamented with hyaline spines and narrow cones, 1.5-2.5 µm tall and up to 2 µm broad at the base.
Shape and Size: Globose to subglobose, 10-18 µm in diameter, sterigmal attachment straight, inconspicuous.
Wall: Single, 1-2 µm thick.
Color in Water: Hyaline.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.
Comments: Hydnangium carneum is closely related to the mushroom genus Laccaria in the family Tricholomataceae. The two genera cannot be differentiated on the basis of spores alone.

View photos of Hydnangium spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: Subglobose to turbinate, generally with a basal protuberance, 0.5-3 cm broad.
Peridium: Pale pink to pink or rose when fresh, fading to white with loss of moisture, felty; rhizomorphs lacking.
Gleba: Small to labyrinthine chambers separated by pink to rose chamber walls; base with a pad or projection of pink tissue that sometimes extends into the gleba as a simple to branched columella.
Odor: Not distinctive.

View photos of Hydnangium sporocarps

Name Derivation

Named by German naturalist Carl Friedrich Wallroth (1792-1857) (1839) from Greek, hydno- (a fungus) and -angium (a vessel, a term used by 19th-century mycologists to mean "sporocarp"), hence, "a fungus sporocarp".

Distribution

Throughout the world where Eucalyptus species have been introduced as seedlings.
Season: Spring, summer or autumn.
Species known from North Temperate Plantations: Of the several northern species studied by Singer and Smith (1960), only H. carneum Wallr. appears to be valid. It was introduced from Australia to other continents as a mycorrhizal associate of Eucalyptus species.

Keys and Descriptions

Singer and Smith (1960) describe H. carneum and its two synonyms (H. soderstroemii Lag. and H. roseum (Harkness) Singer and Smith) in detail. Pegler and Young (1979) provide descriptions and scanning electron photomicrographs of spores.