Tiered Tooth

Tiered Tooth Hericium cirrhatum (Pers.) Nikol. (illustrated 50% life size) Fruit body 5–10cm across, semicircular or shell-shaped and bracket-like, usually tiered; upper surface whitish to pallid ochraceous; often rough with fibrous scales or sterile spines. Flesh cream; thick, soft; taste and smell pleasant. Spines 10–15mm long; cream. Spores 3.5–4×3¼, elliptical; amyloid. Spore print white. Habitat on trunks of deciduous trees; late summer to autumn. Occasional, vulnerable on Red Data List. Edible. Note in my first book this picture was published as Creolophus cirrhatus, but the genus has now been dropped and the fungus has been moved to Hericium.