Chroogomphus mediterraneus, commonly known as the Mediterranean Pine-Spike, is a medium-sized mushroom with an orange-brown to reddish-brown cap and decurrent, cinnamon-coloured gills. It forms mycorrhizal associations with pines and is usually found in Mediterranean and southern European woodlands, often appearing in sandy or dry soils beneath conifer trees. This species is characterised by its yellow basal mycelium, small size, and the colour of its flesh when cut, especially at the stem base.

Cap at first hemispherical to convex, later flattened with a faint central bump and sometimes slightly depressed. The skin is slimy in wet weather, smooth when dry, and covered with dark, appressed fibrils. Colour varies from grey-brown to cream-orange, often with cream or purplish patches, and sometimes entirely wine-red. Gills distant, descending along the stem, with short gilllets at the cap margin; initially yellow-orange, becoming darker to grey-olive and finally dark brown due to spore deposit. Stem cylindrical, more or less tapering at the base, wrinkled, creamy-pink with wine-red spots; greyish at the base with yellow-ochre mycelium. Young specimens may show a fleeting partial veil on the margin of the cap, but the ring zone is almost absent. Flesh firm, whitish-cream in the cap, yellow-orange in the stem, and grey-blackish at the stem base; smell and taste not distinctive. Spore print darkish.

Microscopic Features: Spindle-shaped, dextrinoid, 18–21 × 6–7 µm; basidia 2–4-spored, club-shaped, 45–60 × 5–6 µm; cystidia cylindrical-clavate, covered with mucus or incrustations, rounded at the tip and ending in a long, narrow stalk, 75–165 × 15–20 µm.