Hydnellum peckii is a fungus in the genus Hydnellum of the family Bankeraceae. The unusual appearance of the young fruit bodies has earned the species several descriptive common names, including strawberries and cream, the bleeding Hydnellum, the bleeding tooth fungus, the red-juice tooth, and the Devil's tooth. The fruit bodies typically have a funnel-shaped cap with a white edge, although the shape can vary greatly. Young, moist fruit bodies can "bleed" bright red guttation droplets. Although the fruit bodies are readily identifiable when young, they become brown and nondescript with age. It is a hydnoid species, producing spores on the surface of vertical spines or tooth-like projections that hang from the undersurface of the fruit bodies. The species is found in North America, Europe, and was discovered in Iran (2008) and Korea (2010). It is mycorrhizal, forming mutually beneficial relationships with a variety of coniferous trees, growing on the ground singly, scattered, or in fused masses. They are considered inedible, but the guttation droplets contain atromentin, a pigment with anticoagulant properties similar to heparin.
Taxonomy The species was first described scientifically by American mycologist Howard James Banker in 1913. Italian Pier Andrea Saccardo placed the species in the genus Hydnum in 1925, while Walter Henry Snell and Esther Amelia Dick placed it in Calodon in 1956; Hydnum peckii (Banker) Sacc. and Calodon peckii Snell & E.A. Dick are synonyms of Hydnellum peckii. The fungus is classified in the stirps (species thought to be descendants of a common ancestor) Diabolum of the genus Hydnellum, a grouping of similar species with the following shared characteristics: flesh that is marked with concentric lines that form alternating pale and darker zones (zonate); an extremely peppery taste; a sweetish odor; spores that are ellipsoid, and not amyloid (that is, not absorbing iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent), acyanophilous (not staining with the reagent Cotton Blue), and covered with tubercules; the presence of clamp connections in the hyphae.
Etymology The specific eponym honors mycologist Charles Horton Peck. The fungus is known in the vernacular by several names, including "strawberries and cream", the "bleeding Hydnellum", the "red-juice tooth", "Peck's hydnum", the "bleeding tooth fungus", and the "devil's tooth".
Description As in all mushroom-producing fungi, the fruit bodies (sporocarps) are the reproductive structures that are produced from fungal mycelium when the appropriate environmental conditions of temperature, humidity and nutrient availability are met. Hydnellum peckii is a stipitate hydnoid fungus, meaning that it has a cap atop a stipe (stem), and a form resembling a Hydnum—characterized by a teeth-like hymenium, rather than gills or pores on the underside of the cap. Fruit bodies growing closely together often appear to fuse together (this is called "confluence"). They can reach a height of up to 10.5 cm (4+1⁄8 in). Fresh fruit bodies exude a striking, thick red fluid when they are moist, present even in young specimens, which are lumplike in appearance.
The cap's surface is convex to flattened, more or less uneven and sometimes slightly depressed in the center. It is usually densely covered with "hairs" that give it a texture similar to felt or velvet; these hairs are sloughed off in age, leaving the caps of mature specimens smooth. Its shape varies from somewhat round to irregular, 4 to 10 cm (1+5⁄8 to 3+7⁄8 in), or even as much as 20 cm (7+7⁄8 in) wide as a result of confluence. The cap is initially whitish, but later turns slightly brownish, with irregular dark-brown to nearly black blotches where it is bruised. In maturity, the surface is fibrous and tough, scaly and jagged, grayish brown in the upper part of the cap, and somewhat woody. The flesh is a pale pinkish brown. The spore print is brown. The spines are slender, cylindrical and tapering (terete), less than 5 mm (1⁄4 in) long, and become shorter closer to the cap edge. They are crowded together, with typically between three and five teeth per square millimeter. Pinkish white initially, they age to a grayish brown. The stem is thick, very short, and often deformed. It becomes bulbous where it penetrates the ground, and may root into the soil for several centimeters. Although it may reach up to 5 cm (2 in) in total length, and is 1 to 3 cm (3⁄8 to 1+1⁄8 in) wide, only about 0.1 to 1 cm (1⁄16 to 3⁄8 in) appear above ground. The upper part is covered with the same teeth found on the underside of the cap, whereas the lower part is hairy and often encases debris from the forest floor. The odor of the fruit body has been described as "mild to disagreeable", or, as Banker suggested in his original description, similar to hickory nuts.
Microscopic features
In deposit, the spores appear brown. Viewing them with a light microscope reveals finer details of their structure: they are roughly spherical but end abruptly in a small point, their surfaces are covered with small, wart-like nodules, and their size is between 5.0–5.3 by 4.0–4.7 μm. The spores are inamyloid, meaning they do not absorb iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent. Hydnellum peckii's cells (the hyphae) also present various characters useful for its characterization. The hyphae that form the cap are hyaline (translucent), smooth, thin-walled, and 3–4 μm thick. They collapse when dry, but may be readily revived with a weak (2%) solution of potassium hydroxide. Those in the cap form an intricate tangle with a tendency to run longitudinally. They are divided into cellular compartments (septa) and have clamp connections—short branches connecting one cell to the previous cell to allow passage of the products of nuclear division. The basidia, the spore-bearing cells in the hymenium, are club-shaped, four-spored, and measure 35–40 by 4.7–6 μm.
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