Several Auricularia species are edible and commercially cultivated on a large scale in China and East Asia.

The genus was first introduced in 1780 by French mycologist Pierre Bulliard for a range of different fungi producing fruit bodies with an ear-like shape.

[3] This division into two genera was maintained by some authors until at least the 1960s,[4] though American mycologist Bernard Lowy's monograph of the genus had accepted Hirneola as a synonym of Auricularia in 1952 .

[5] Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has shown that Auricularia (including Hirneola) forms a natural, monophyletic grouping.

It has also shown that many species are more restricted in distribution than previously thought, resulting in the description of additional new taxa.

[14] Additional places where Auricularia species have been recorded as locally gathered and consumed include Benin, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, and Poland.