Summary:
Features include 1) large, rosette-like form of many caps from a single stem, the caps violaceous black, the cap surface with concentric ridges and striate toward margin, 2) brittle flesh, 3) violaceous-colored to vinaceous brown teeth, and 4) stout, corky, pinkish brown stem. It is common on the Pacific Coast but uncommon in the Rocky Mountains (Bessette).

Odor:
pungent aromatic in one, faint or none in other collections, (Harrison), fragrant, heavy, (Phillips), slightly farinaceous (Hall)

Taste:
disagreeable or mealy, slightly bitter, not noted in others and assumed to be mild, (Harrison), slightly peppery (Phillips), not distinct (Hall)

Microscopic:
spores 4.5-6 x 3.5-4.5 microns, oblong to nearly round, tuberculate, tubercles low and rounded; basidia 5-6 microns wide; hyphae 3-4 microns wide with few septa and with a few large clamp connections, 2 systems of hyphae present: 1) in stem, light colored with numerous amber-colored granules attached externally to cell walls, 2) only in cap, dark bluish with dark granules attached to inner walls, in KOH ''the dark hyphae turned dark blue-green quickly, and then blackish; the dark granules dissolved and the color leached to form a flocculent precipitate in the solution; the hyphae of the stipe turned slightly olivaceous; in Melzer''s reagent the dark hyphal system of the pileus was intensified and the dark granules showed more clearly and, in the stipe, scattered cells in the hyphae were found in which "apparent amyloid" granules appeared slowly'', (Harrison), spores 4.0-5.5 microns in diameter, round to nearly round, coarsely warted, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored, 30-35 x 7-8 microns, clavate; hyphae up to 5 microns wide, thin-walled with abundant large clamp connections, parallel and agglutinated in the hard cap context, (Hall)

Spore Deposit:
pale brown in thin deposit (Harrison), brown (Hall)

Notes:
Hydnellum regium is found at least in WA (Hall), ID, OR, CO, (Harrison), and BC (Bessette).

EDIBILITY

unknown (Phillips), inedible (Bessette)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Suillus neoalbidipes M.E. Palm & E.L. Stewart Mycologia