Native to North America and Eurasia, the mushrooms are common during late summer and autumn on hardwoods, particularly American beech and maple.

They are 5–40 centimetres (2–15+1⁄2 inches) in diameter,[5] and are dominated by crowded, hanging, spore-producing spines, which are 1–5 cm (1⁄2–2 in) long or longer.

[6][7] The hyphal system is monomitic, amyloid, and composed of thin- to thick-walled hyphae that are approximately 3–15 μm (microns) wide.

The hyphae also contain clamped septa and gloeoplerous elements (filled with oily, resinous substances), which can come into the hymenium as gloeocystidia.

[3] Similar species in the genus include H. americanum and H. coralloides,[7] both found in eastern North America.

[citation needed] H. erinaceus hosts in North America include maple, ash, oaks, and eucalyptus.

Farm hygiene and heat treatments are the most important pest management strategies that should be followed to counter this acarus.

They show the ability to maintain their place on dead wood, also when confronted with secondary colonizers, such as Trametes versicolor and Stereum hirsutum.

[5] Hericium erinaceus has shown to be slightly more competitive than other fungi tooth species, including Creolophus cirrhatus and H. coralloides.

[17] Although H. erinaceus is native to Europe, it has been red listed in 13 European countries due to poor germination and establishment.

[citation needed] In fungi cultivation, fungal strains are analogous to plant varieties in crop breeding.

[11] As a saprophyte that occurs on dead wood,[3] H. erinaceus requires adequate substrate factors, including suitable carbon and nitrogen sources, a certain pH value and ideal carbon-to-nitrogen ratio.

The solid substrate is most commonly a mixture of sawdust of hardwood or conifer containing different complements that may include wheat bran, wheat straw, soybean meal, corn meal, rice bran, and rice straw.

[21] Submerged culture is a type of artificial cultivation of H. erinaceus whereby the fungus is grown in a liquid medium.

[21] Bioactive compounds can be sourced from the fruiting bodies, submerged-cultivated mycelial biomass, or liquid-cultivated broth.

Growers optimize the culture medium composition to obtain simultaneously high yields of H. erinaceus mycelial biomass, exopolysaccharides, and polysaccharides.

[24] Other technologies, such as red and green laser light of low intensity, stimulated spore germination as well as the vegetative growth of mycelium.