Jelly toothPseudohydnum gelatinosum

The jelly tooth (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum), also called the toothed jelly fungus, is the only jelly fungus in Europe with spines. Its cap is translucent like jelly, and underneath it's covered in soft white spines like a hedgehog mushroom. That's where the name comes from: Scopoli described it in 1772 as a Hydnum, the hedgehog genus, which then held every fungus with spines, and it was later moved to its own genus of 'false hedgehogs'. In German it's called the 'ice mushroom' and the 'quivering tooth'.

How do you identify a jelly tooth? The fruit body is jelly-like, tongue-, fan-, spoon- or shell-shaped, attached at the side on a short stem, and usually a few centimetres across. On flat surfaces the stem can be longer and more central, and sometimes it's almost absent. The top is finely hairy at first, then almost smooth, faintly granular or suede-like. The colour varies a lot: translucent white, watery grey, grey-brown or brown, sometimes bluish grey, and occasionally almost black. The underside is covered in crowded, soft, translucent spines 1 to 4 mm long, white or greyish, which carry on down the stem. The flesh is jelly-like, soft and watery. The spore print is white. The smell is indistinct.

Where does it grow? On well-rotted conifer wood: stumps, fallen trunks and logs, most often spruce, less often pine and fir, frequently among moss in damp, shady places. It's very rarely found on broadleaved wood. It appears from late summer to late autumn, most often in early to mid-autumn. It's an occasional find, more frequent in conifer plantations and pinewoods.

Is the jelly tooth edible? Yes, but it's of little value, as it has almost no flavour. Norway's official list of edible mushrooms (2024) includes it, and people pick it in Bulgaria and Russia. Some guides, mostly North American, say it can even be eaten raw; no European expert list backs that, so we don't recommend it. German sources also warn about possible fox tapeworm contamination from the forest floor. We found no reports of poisoning.

What can you mistake it for? Hedgehog mushrooms, the wood hedgehog and the white hedgehog, also have spines underneath, but they're firm, fleshy and opaque, with a central stem, and grow on soil, not wood. Coral tooth is also white and spiny but fleshy rather than jelly-like, much bigger and mostly on broadleaved wood. The earpick fungus has a small, dry, hairy brown cap on a side stem and grows on pine cones. Apricot jelly is jelly-like too, but salmon pink to orange with a smooth underside. Young jelly tooths, before the spines develop, can be confused with white jelly fungi such as white brain (Descidia thuretiana).