Phellodon niger

A hydnoid species growing in pine forests among needle litter on the ground, with stipitate basidiomata having a flattened to infundibuliform pileus 3 to 7 cm across, with a rugose central disc, blackish-blue with an undulating whitish margin, a hymenophore composed of slender bluish-grey spines/teeth, tough and coriaceous flesh, blackish with brownish tones in section.

Hyphal system monomitic; contextual hyphae containing brown intracellular pigment, thin- to slightly thick-walled, arranged more or less parallel, 3 to 5 µm wide; subhymenial hyphae hyaline, of similar width; both septate with simple septa (lacking clamp connections).

Hymenial cystidia absent, but sterile terminal hyphae (hyphidia) are present at the tips of the spines, cylindrical, 35 to 50 µm long, 4 to 6 µm wide, with rounded apices.

Basidia cylindrical-clavate, 25 to 35 µm long, 4 to 6 µm wide, simple-septate at the base, 4-spored.

Spores spherical to ovoid, hyaline, with a distinctly verrucose/echinulate wall, 3.5 to 4.5 µm long (excluding ornamentation), 3 to 4 µm wide, inamyloid in Melzer's reagent.