Looking quite unlike any other fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare grows nearly always from rotting cones from pines and occasionally other kinds of conifers.
Infrequent and apparently localised in Britain and Ireland, Auriscalpium vulgare occurs also throughout much of Europe, Asia and the Americas.
This species was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, who placed it in the genus Hydnum (because it has a spiny fertile surface rather like other hedgehog fungi). The Earpick Fungus was given its present name in 1821 by the British mycologist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766 - 1828).
Synonyms of Auriscalpium vulgare include Hydnum auriscalpium L., Scutiger auriscalpium (L.) Paulet, Pleurodon auriscalpium (L.) P.Karst., Leptodon auriscalpium (L.) Quél., Hydnum atrotomentosum Schwalb, Auriscalpium auriscalpium (L.) Kuntze, Auriscalpium auriscalpium (L.) Banker, Hydnum fechtneri Velen., Pleurodon fechtneri (Velen.) Cejp, and Auriscalpium fechtneri (Velen.) Nikol.
The Earpick Fungus Auriscalpium vulgare, the type species of its genus, is the only known auriscalpium species in Britain and Ireland.
Auriscalpium comes from the Latin noun auris, an ear, and the Latin verb scalpare, to scratch. Earpick is a pretty good English translation, therefore, The specific epithet vulgare means common (and as these are rare fungi that can only be interpreted as 'the most common of the handful of known species in this genus worldwide').
1 to 3cm across and usually kidney shaped; covered in fine bristles; pale brown and flexible when young, becoming tough and turning darker brown with age.
Densely packed, typically 0.5mm diameter and 2 to 3mm long; whitish at first (see picture below) becoming brown with age (as seen on the left).
Eccentric (often attached right at one edge of the cap), 1.5 to 2mm diameter and up to 6cm long, tough and covered with short fine bristles the same colour as the cap.
Broadly ellipsoidal or globose, 4.6-5.5 x 4-5µm; covered with tiny bumps; hyaline; amyloid.
On conifer cones, particularly of pines, and sometimes on conifer litter on the forest floor.
August to November in Britain and Ireland.
There are none in Britain and Ireland - or at least if there are they have yet to be discovered!
This insubstantial and tough fungus is generally regarded as inedible.
This page includes pictures kindly contributed by David Kelly.