Bearded ToothHericium erinaceus
- Also known as:
- Lion's Mane
Protected by law — do not pick
the United Kingdom
Traditionally collected in: Italy, France and Russia
Description
A white or cream fruitbody covered in long hanging spines. It grows from wood and often forms a rounded cushion or cascading mass. Other Hericium species can look similar, so identification should still be checked.
Where it grows
On old, dead or dying broadleaved trees, especially beech and oak, usually in mature woodland.
Mostly from late summer into autumn.
«Bearded Tooth — or something like it?»
If the description above leaves you unsure, do not guess from memory and do not compare by eye with a picture off the internet. Our photo identifier shows several likely candidates with percentages, and names the dangerous lookalikes if there are any — rather than one confident answer.
In detail
Season
Fruits from early August to early November.
What to do with it
This species may not be picked (see «Caution» below), so storing and cooking do not belong here. If you find one: photograph it where it stands, do not cut or dig it up, and remember the spot for your own records — the mycelium fruits there year after year.
Take care
In Great Britain: protected — do not pick. Wild Bearded Tooth is legally protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Photograph it, record the find and leave it in place. Cultivated Lion's Mane sold for food is a separate matter. In other countries, check local protection rules.
Nothing on this page is an expert opinion, and nothing here confirms that the mushroom you found is edible. Photo identification in this service is a probabilistic hint, not permission to pick or to eat.
Lookalikes
Edible and safe. It is red-listed in Russia and in a number of European countries, so it is not picked everywhere.
- ·Overall shape: the fruitbody of Bearded Tooth is one undivided mass from which the spines hang in a bunch; the Coral Tooth is branched into separate arms like a sea coral.
- ·Length of the spines: one to five centimetres and more in Bearded Tooth, hanging free; under one centimetre in the Coral Tooth, set in rows along the branches and tufted only at their tips.
- ·Point of attachment: Bearded Tooth hangs from a single place, a crack or a hollow in a living trunk; the Coral Tooth spreads along a fallen branch.
- ·Host tree: Bearded Tooth more often on oak, beech and walnut; the Coral Tooth on fallen birch, aspen and spruce.
Edible, though the flesh is tougher and drier than that of Bearded Tooth. The species is uncommon and protected on a number of regional lists.
- ·Manner of growth: the Tiered Tooth forms overlapping semicircular brackets grown one upon another; Bearded Tooth is a single mass hanging from one point.
- ·Where the spines sit: on the underside of the bracket only in the Tiered Tooth, with a downy, warted cap visible above; Bearded Tooth has no cap at all and the spines cover the whole surface.
- ·Length of the spines: short in the Tiered Tooth, up to one or one and a half centimetres; one to five centimetres and longer in Bearded Tooth.
Not poisonous, but bitter and so tough and fibrous that it is of no use as food.
- ·The Northern Tooth grows as a tiered column of fused brackets on a living trunk, most often maple; Bearded Tooth is a single mass with no tiers.
- ·The flesh of the Northern Tooth is tough and fibrous and becomes woody with age; that of Bearded Tooth is soft and springy and tears easily between the fingers.
- ·The spines of the Northern Tooth are short and sit on the underside of the brackets only, with a dense downy cap above.
- ·Colour: the Northern Tooth yellows and browns with age, and old fruitbodies smell rancid; Bearded Tooth stays white or cream and yellows only at the very end.
Check whether this one is out near you
The foraging forecast changes daily — with rainfall, temperature and the phase of the flush, rather than «it ought to be the season».
Your comment
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Updated from the FungRadar species reference · not a specialist's determination