14/Sep/2026, 1:18 PM
Männiku, Tallinn, Harju, Eesti
Pine forest, on Pinus sylvestris strobile buried in sandy soil
59°21'31.1"N 24°42'44.8"E
🌡️ 15°C ☀️ Sunny 💨 Wind 10° N->S, 9 km/h
Original Instagram postAuriscalpium vulgare
Earpick Fungus
- Scientific identification
- Auriscalpium vulgare Gray
- Family
- Auriscalpiaceae
- Class
- Agaricomycetes
- Genus
- Auriscalpium
Names across languages
- English: Earpick Fungus
- German: Ohrlöffel-Stacheling
- Finnish: Käpyorakas
- Estonian: Käbinarmik
- Russian: Аурискальпиум обыкновенный
The scientific profile
From the latest record: 2026-09-14.
Hymenium
Teeth densely crowded, cylindrical and pointed, ~1–3 mm long; whitish when young, becoming pale brown to grey-brown with age
Cap
Kidney- to semicircular, broadly convex to flat; dry, finely bristly or hairy, sometimes smoother with age; reddish-brown, chestnut to nearly black, usually with a paler margin
Hymenium Attachment
Fertile teeth cover the underside of the cap
Stipe
Slender, tough, lateral to strongly eccentric; reddish-brown to dark brown, densely hairy; often arising directly from a buried cone
Spore print
Spore print white
Ecology
Saprobic primarily on fallen and often partly buried pine cones, occasionally other conifer cones and litter; solitary or scattered; coniferous and mixed forests; summer to late autumn
Edibility
Inedible; tiny, tough and leathery
Fruit body
Fruit body small; stipe ~2–7 cm long and up to ~0.3 cm thick
Dimensions
Cap ∅ ~1–3 cm
Flesh
Whitish to brownish, thin, fibrous and tough, unchanging when cut
Chemical reactions
KOH instantly black on cap and stipe
Odour
Indistinct
Taste
Slightly bitter
Microscopy
Spores broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, finely warted to minutely spiny at maturity, hyaline, amyloid, ~4–6 × 3.5–5 µm; basidia 4-spored; cystidia fusoid, clamp connections present
Overview
Tiny dark tooth fungus growing characteristically from fallen pine cones
1821). Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. (London) 1: 650.
Field encounters
Source hashtags
#auriscalpiumvulgare #mushroomphotos #fungimacro #earpickfungus #naturephotography
Back to the collection · Photography and field notes by @fungarium.info