Flesh: brown.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: small, hyaline, minutely spiny, spherical, 4-5 µm in diameter, and becoming blue-grey in solutions containing iodine.
Cystidia: flask-shaped with oily contents.
Habitat & Distribution: This fungus is always found on fallen pine-cones and occurs from early summer to autumn.
General Information: The ear-pick fungus is easily recognised by the slender, elegant habit, excentrically placed cap, substrate preference and dark colours. It cannot be confused with any other fungus. Recently it has been shown that the ‘agaric’ Lentinellus cochleatus (Fries) Karsten ([p. 76]) is more closely related to Auriscalpium than this fungus is to other spine-bearing forms and Lentinellus is to the other agarics. Both fungi possess thick-walled cells in the flesh and oil-containing hyphae; they are placed in the family Auriscalpiaceae.
Another laterally stemmed Hedgehog fungus differs in possessing distinctly gelatinised teeth and preference for conifer wood and not cones. Examination of the basidia of this fungus shows that it is more closely related to the jelly-fungi, Exidia and Tremella ([p. 184]) than to Hedgehog fungi such as Auriscalpium or Hyndum repandum Fries ([p. 160]). This false nature is reflected in the name of the genus to which it belongs, Pseudohydnum, and the very gelatinous texture in the specific name ‘gelatinosum’: the fungus is Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, or as it used to be called Tremellodon gelatinosum.
Illustrations: Auriscalpium vulgare—WD 1036. Pseudohydnum gelatinosum—WD 1059.
Plate 52. Tough or leathery fungi: Spores white and borne on spines—Ear pick fungus
