A tough, corky tooth fungus with an orange to rusty-red, lumpy and pitted cap with a whitish margin, and whitish spines that age brown. The flesh is zoned and two-layered, and neighboring fruitbodies sometimes fuse together. It grows on the ground under conifers and is inedible. Its orange pigment, aurantiacin, makes it a dye mushroom.
Ectomycorrhizal, mainly with conifers (pines and eastern hemlock in the East; fir and Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest), occasionally under hardwoods; singly or in groups in conifer and mixed woods. Summer through fall, or over winter in warm climates.
Distribution
Across North America; also Europe, Asia (including China, India and Korea) and Australia (Wikipedia).
Characteristics
Cap: 3-10 cm (to 15 cm), flat to shallowly depressed; velvety when young, becoming pitted, ridged or elaborately sculpted, sometimes with small aborted caps on top; orange to rusty red with a whitish to pinkish margin that bruises brownish to blackish. Spines: crowded, 2-5 mm long, whitish when young, becoming dingy brown. Stem: 2-5 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, orange to rusty red, sometimes spongy near the base. Flesh: two-layered, whitish to dull orange above, corky and orange-brown with contrasting zones in the stem; KOH turns it greenish to black. Odor: fragrant. Taste: unpleasant, bitter or mealy. Spore print: brown. Spores: about 4.5-9 x 4-7 µm, subglobose, prominently warty; clamp connections absent (MushroomExpert).
