E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Features include 1) a buff to pale cinnamon brown cap that is bald breaking into small appressed scales, 2) brown teeth with pale tips, 3) a short stem colored like the cap or paler, 4) mild to spicy odor, and 5) microscopic characters including clamp connections. |Var. odoratum is distinguished by its odor which is similar to that of Hydnellum suaveolens. |Some species in Sarcodon were reassigned starting in 2019 to Hydnellum based largely on molecular criteria (Larsson(2)); Larsson(2) introduced spore length (with ornamentation excluded) as a possible differentiating criterion between the two genera: 7.4-9 microns for Sarcodon and 4.45-6.95 microns for Hydnellum, with Sarcodon quercinofibulatus as an exception. If this criterion holds, Sarcodon calvatus is likely to be moved to Hydnellum.

Sarcodon calvatus has been found at least in OR and ID, (Harrison(1), both var. calvatus described below, and var. odoratum), BC (collection at Pacific Forestry Centre determined by K.A. Harrison as Hydnum calvatum), WA (Hall, var. odoratum). This or a close species was found in New Mexico by Arora.

Cap:
(5)10-25(35)cm, convex to nearly flat or somewhat irregular, margin often lobed; creamy-buff to yellowish tan or pale cinnamon-brown, "the scales slightly darker and becoming brownish where bruised"; dry, soon breaking into small flattened scales and usually cracking when old, (Arora), 15-28cm, irregularly convex, margin thin, irregularly lobed and wavy; "Verona brown" to "Sayal brown" (Latin gives ''vinaceo-brunneus vel subcinnamomeus''), margin tawny; bald breaking into small appressed scales, disc often remaining bald, margin pubescent [downy], (Harrison(1))

Flesh:
very thick, firm; pallid to pinkish buff or pale brownish, or grayer near the teeth, (Arora), thick, soft; "pale avellaneous" then "wood brown"; in stem "pale avellaneous", (Harrison(1)), grayish (Smith)

Teeth:
0.2-1.2(1.5)cm long, usually very unequal in length "or many aborted or fused together or forked or with small swellings", sometimes decurrent; pallid, soon darkening to brown or grayish brown, tips usually paler, (Arora), 0.5-0.6cm (on a 28cm cap), abortive and decurrent on stem; "Sayal brown", with pale tips, (Harrison(1))

Stem:
2-9cm x 2-4(6)cm, "central or off-center, usually narrowed at the base and sometimes rooting", solid, firm; "colored like cap or slightly paler, the base often whitish from mycelium", (Arora), 2-4cm x 2-4cm, solid; "pale avellaneous", "Verona brown" at apex [top], base whitish, (Harrison(1))

Chemical Reactions:
cap surface "staining blue-green to olive-black in KOH", (Arora)

Odor:
pungent in var. calvatus, fragrant in var. odoratus, (Harrison(4)), not distinctive in var. calvatus, in var. odoratum spicy, similar to that of Hydnellum suaveolens, (Harrison(1)), in var. odoratum fragrant, of coumarin or vanilla extract, (Hall), variable, mild to spicy-fragrant to farinaceous (Arora for H. calvatum group)

Taste:
mild then slowly bitter, not farinaceous (in var. odoratum mild or in the type faintly farinaceous), (Harrison(1)), mild to spicy-fragrant to farinaceous (Arora for H. calvatum group)

Microscopic:
spores 4-5.5 x 3-5 microns, nearly round to elliptic but prominently warted (angular-nodulose), (Arora), spores 4-5.5 x 3.5-4 microns, oblong, nodulose, nodules tuberculate; basidia 4-spored, 25 x 5-6 microns; hyphae in teeth "2-8 microns wide, parallel, tightly packed, clamps compressed, walls wavy"; hyphae of epicutis 5-8 microns wide, "interwoven, containing a layer of reddish material", some tramal cells inflated to 9-12 microns wide, numerous large clamp connections at cross-walls; the thin epicutis ''turns blue-green in KOH and the same hyphae give the "apparent amyloid" reaction in Melzer''s reagent'', (Harrison(1))

Spore Deposit:
wood brown (Harrison(1)), brown (Arora)