fused polypore and more

this is my contribution to FungiFriday by ewkaw

last week i was out searching for mushrooms with my daughter and two grandchildren. the kids were very eager and clever to find them.
they were even quite fond of eating them.

we came upon a lot of albatrellus confluens fused polypores

growing together on a rather steep slope in the forest

i don't recall ever actually finding them before but i knew of them. supposedly they are quite easy to distinguish from other species

my daughter concurred that they were indeed albatrellus confluens in norwegian we call them 'french bread mushrooms' which is a far better common name than fused polypore

we did not pick them. i have read some sources claiming that they are edible and others that they are not. so we took only photos.

in the midst of these were some that seemed a little different. they were similar but slightly paler and less gnarly shaped

but in general, size, shape and color they blended in with the others

but the underside of these revealed they had spines and could not be a polypore. they must be a type of hedgehog

it has been a good year for common hedgehogs Hydnum repandum and indeed we had put quite a few in the basket already but those were typical specimens with large dense spikes and paler flesh

the spikes on these few here were whiter and far smaller, more like stubble than proper spikes and the flesh above darker in color. i am still wondering if this is a variation of Hydnum repandum or a separate, perhaps rare species. i would be happy to hear if anybody knows.