Hydnangium carneum

Sporocarp
Fruiting body 5 mm to 30 mm broad, subglobose to irregularly lobed, most with a small stipe at base; peridium pallid to pinkish-white, becoming darker to brownish, disappearing in some specimens and exposing the chambers; gleba irregularly chambered, pinkish-white to pinkish-brown; aroma mild, taste not distinctive.

Spores
Spores echinate, globose to subglobose, 10 µm to 15 µm broad, hyaline in KOH.

Habitat
Scattered to gregarious, mostly just exposed at soil surface under the duff. Associated mostly with blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), fall through spring.

Edibility
Unknown.

Comments
Hydnangium carneum has often been described as lacking a sterile base or stipe. But most, if not all, of the gastrocarps have a sterile base that, at least in most younger specimens, protrudes from the gleba up to 3-4 mm as a stipe. Care must be taken in collecting and cleaning the specimens or the sterile base will be left in the substrate or brushed off with the dirt while cleaning.

Hydnangium is closely related to the mushroom genus Laccaria. It is interesting to note that the Laccaria that grows locally with Eucalyptus, L. fraterna, has two spored basidia, as does Hydnangium carneum.