Bearded tooth

Description

Lion's mane is a large, spherical or cushion-shaped, white to cream mass covered with dense, hanging spines several centimetres long. It looks like a beard or a lion's mane. It is usually 8–20 cm, but may grow up to 30 cm. With age it turns yellow and brown.

It grows in autumn on trunks of old deciduous trees, most often beeches and oaks, usually in wounds or on dead wood, at heights up to several metres. In Poland it is very rare (status E - endangered) and under strict protection, so it must not be picked. On the other hand, you can buy it from cultivation.

What distinguishes it from the coral tooth and the fir coral tooth is that it is a single mass with spines and not a branched little bush. If you are not sure of the species, do not pick or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

No typical cap. Fruiting body spherical or cushion-shaped, sometimes thatch-like, 8–20 cm, up to 30 cm (some descriptions give 5–40 cm). White when young, then whitish-cream, yellowish-blue, finally ochre-brownish. Attached to the tree by the side or by a bulbous part, which becomes woody in older specimens; unbranched.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Dense, hanging spines (needles) 2–6 cm long (some descriptions give 1–5 cm or more), 1.5–2 mm thick at the base; young whitish-yellow, later creamy, in old age from yellow-orange to greyish-brownish.

Stem

No distinct stem; the fruiting body is attached to the tree by the side or by a bulbous part.

Flesh

Fleshy, elastic, springy, somewhat fibrous, white, compact. Taste sweetish, smell mushroomy (do not taste the flesh of unidentified mushrooms).

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores amyloid, very finely dotted to smooth or finely rough, almost spherical to short-ellipsoid. Size: 5–7 × 4–5 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph on dead wood or a weak parasite of older, weakened trees; in nature usually associated with a wound of the tree, causes white rot (the decayed wood becomes spongy). Mainly beech and oak, also apple and walnut; in North America maple, ash, oaks. It can fruit intermittently for about 20 years on the same dead tree. It tolerates cold and frost well.

Distribution. North America, Europe and Asia. Rare in Poland: up to 2021, 3 historical and 55 contemporary localities. Red List 2006: E (endangered). In Poland since 1995 under strict protection (Dz.U. 2014 item 1408). On the lists of threatened species also in, among others, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia.

Fruiting. In Europe mainly from August to November; in Poland no more precise data.

What can it be confused with?

• Hericium coralloides (coral tooth) — Fruiting body branched, spines in tufts at the ends of the branches; lion's mane is an unbranched, lumpy ball with dense spines.
• Hericium alpestre (fir coral tooth) — Grows on fir; differs considerably in the shape of the fruiting body and in the spines.
• Hericium americanum (North America), Donkia pulcherrima, Radulomyces copelandii, species of the genus Sarcodontia — Mentioned as similar; detailed differences - no data.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The genus and species names mean hedgehog in Latin; in Japanese it is called yamabushitake (after the mountain ascetics yamabushi), and in Chinese hóutóugū, i.e. monkey head mushroom.
• On the same dead tree it can fruit intermittently for about 20 years, and according to a hypothesis the mycelium may live about 40 years.
• The first documented artificial cultivation comes from China in 1988; in Asia it is widely cultivated, in Europe and the USA it is produced on a small scale.
• It is entered on the lists of threatened species in many European countries, even though it is native here.