Earpick Fungus

Description

The Earpick Fungus is a small mushroom with a cap usually smaller than an adult's fingernail, spoon- or kidney-shaped, covered with fine dark brown hairs. A thin, hairy, brownish-black stem grows from the side of the cap, and the underside is covered with small greyish spines instead of gills or pores. The whole fruiting body is tough and leathery.

It grows on fallen pine cones, often on those partly buried in the litter, in pine and mixed forests. In Poland it is common, but easy to overlook because it is small and inconspicuous. Fruiting bodies can be found all year round, and overwintered ones turn almost black.

It is easiest to recognise by a combination of three features: it grows on a cone, has a lateral hairy stem and has spines under the cap. It is inedible because of its toughness and tiny size.

Identification features

Cap

Small, usually 0.5–2 cm, rarely up to 4–5 cm; semicircular or kidney-shaped, rounded above and flat below. The surface is at first bristly, dark chestnut brown, hairy or felty, slightly zoned; with age it becomes smoother and darkens to almost black. The margin is paler (buff to light brown), becoming inrolled and wavy with age. Overwintered specimens are blackish brown and often overgrown with green algae. Fruiting bodies without a cap sometimes occur.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Spines (not gills or tubes) up to 3 mm long, cylindrical, pointed at the tips, decurrent on the stem. When young they are whitish, light brown or purplish pink, then become covered with a white bloom of spores, and finally turn grey and brown.

Stem

Lateral or eccentric, attached to the cap margin; cylindrical or slightly flattened, thin (about 2 mm), 2–8 cm tall, with a bulbously swollen base. The surface is hairy, dark chestnut brown or brownish black. Sometimes several stipes grow from one thick base, or the stipe is branched.

Flesh

Leathery-elastic, rigid when dry; in the cap two-layered: a thin, compact, blackish brown and hairy upper layer and a thick, soft, white to light brown lower layer. The stipe has a thin dark rind and ochre flesh inside. Odour and taste are not distinctive. KOH applied to the surface of the fruiting body immediately stains it black. The flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores colourless, ellipsoid, ovoid-globose to almost globose, warty, amyloid, cyanophilous; dimensions about 4–5.5 × 4–5 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A saprotroph growing on fallen cones of conifers, especially Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), particularly on cones partly or wholly buried in the soil; less often on spruce cones, and in California mainly on Douglas-fir cones. It needs high humidity for the fruiting bodies to grow; growth is inhibited both by full sunlight and by complete darkness. The fruiting bodies change their geotropic response several times, so that the spines finally point downwards. Development of the fruiting body takes 9 to 35 days, and spores begin to form 48–72 hours after cap growth starts.

Distribution. Widespread in Europe, North and Central America and temperate Asia. In Poland common in pine and mixed forests, although rarely noticed because of its small size. Not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. In Poland fruiting bodies can be found all year round; older ones darken slowly and may stay visible on cones throughout the winter. They appear most abundantly in summer and autumn.

What can it be confused with?

• Baeospora myosura — A small gilled mushroom growing on spruce cones; it has gills instead of spines and a centrally attached stem.
• Strobilurus spp. (e.g. S. trullisatus) — Small gilled mushrooms arising from cones (including Douglas-fir); they have gills and a central stem, and no spines.
• Mycena purpureofusca — A small bonnet growing on pine cones; it has gills and a thin, smooth, centrally attached stem, without brown hairs.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The genus name Auriscalpium means "ear spoon" in Latin, a small tool for removing foreign bodies from the ear; the English name "earpick fungus" refers to the shape of the fruiting body.
• Linnaeus described the species in 1753 in the genus Hydnum; in 1821 Samuel Frederick Gray erected a separate genus, Auriscalpium, for it.
• Despite its completely different appearance, the Earpick Fungus is related to, among others, the gilled genus Lentinus, the polypore Albatrellus and the tooth fungus Hericium – all belong to the order Russulales.
• During development the fruiting body changes its response to gravity three times, so that the stem grows vertically, the cap horizontally, and the spines point downwards and release spores efficiently.
• An 1887 handbook stated that the species was sometimes eaten in France and Italy; today it is considered inedible.