Phellodon niger

Cap:- Flat topped or occasionally with a shallow depression, the upper surface is blue-black becoming black, retaining a white rim. The cap surface is rough, often gnarled and pitted, and most often concentrically zoned with a sharp, slightly striate margin.

Fruitbodies usually appear in small groups so that several caps become fused together.

Spines:- The lower (fertile) surface of this hydnoid fungus is covered in pale blue-grey spines up to 3mm long; the spines are decurrent to the stem.

Stem:- 2 to 5cm long and 1 to 2cm in diameter, the stem is more or less cylindrical, black and tomentose; it is often entirely buried in leaf litter.

(Ref: Pat O'Rielly)