Tiger’s Eye

Tiger’s Eye Coltricia perennis (L.) Murrill (illustrated 55% life size) Cap 2–8cm across, depressed at the centre; more or less zoned maroon, rusty-brown, ochraceous, and pale grey; upper surface finely velvety at first, then becoming smooth. Stem 15–35×2–10mm, usually central but occasionally fused to neighbouring fruit bodies; rusty brown; surface slightly velvety. Flesh brown; taste and smell not distinctive. Tubes 0.5–3mm long, decurrent; umber. Pores 2–3 per mm, irregularly angular; cinnamon-brown, but covered at first by a whitish bloom. Spores 6–9×4–5¼, elliptical; ochraceous. Hyphal structure monomitic; generative hyphae thin-walled, brown, without clamp connections. Habitat along path sides in woods and on heaths, usually on sandy soil; all year. Frequent. Not edible.