A widely distributed species nowhere described as common, and reported as rare or threatened in several parts of its range.

ASIA: Japan. CENTRAL AMERICA: Costa Rica. EUROPE: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia (Moscow oblast), Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK. NORTH AMERICA: USA (Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin). Altitudes up to 1600 m.

Hydnotrya tulasnei has been red listed as critically endangered for Germany, as endangered for Nordrhein-Westfalen and as threatened for Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns. It appears on a list of extinct and endangered species of Lithuania, but its status on that list is said to be indeterminate. The species was given low priority for monitoring as a species of special concern in a list of fungi from the Owyhee Region (Idaho & Oregon, USA). It is listed as near threatened for Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.

Hypogeous fungi make an important contribution to the dynamics of woodland and forest soils, through their mutualism with mammals resulting in digging and aeration. The species has been observed in May, June, July, August, September and October. Associated plants. Acer sp.; Alnus sp.; Betula sp.; Carpinus betulus; Castanea sativa; Fagus sylvatica; Fagus sp.; Ilex aquifolium; Larix sp.; Picea abies; Picea sp.; Pinus nigra; Pinus sp.; Quercus copeyensis; Q. glauca; Q. ilex; Q. oocarpa; Q. robur; Q. seemanii; Q. × turneri; Quercus sp.; Salix sp.; Tilia sp. Other associated organisms: Muscopsida; Rodentia; Sciurus vulgaris (eating ascomata). Other substrata: humus, soil.

Disturbance of forest ecosystems may be a threat.

ABBOTT, S.P. & CURRAH, R.S. The Helvellaceae: systematic revision and occurrence in northern and northwestern North America. Mycotaxon 62: 1-125 (1997). BONTEA, V. Ciuperci Parazite şi Saprofite din România 2: 471 pp. (1986). CHMIEL, M.A. Checklist of Polish Larger Ascomycetes. Kraków, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences: 152 pp. (2006). HAWKER, L.E. British hypogeous fungi. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 237: 429-546, 29 figs (1954). HAWKER, L.E. Revised annotated list of British hypogeous fungi. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 63: 67-76 (1974). JURC, D., PILTAVER, A. & OGRIS, N. Glive Slovenije / Fungi of Slovenia. Studia Forestalia Slovenica 124: i-vi, 1-497 (2005). LANDVIK, S., EGGER, K.N. & SCHUMACHER, T. Towards a subordinal classification of the Pezizales (Ascomycota): phylogenetic analyses of SSU rDNA sequences. Nordic Journal of Botany 17 (4): 403-418 (1997). MINTER, D.W. Hydnotrya tulasnei. IMI Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria No. 1720 (2007). MONTECCHI, A. & SARASINI, M. Funghi Ipogei d’Europa (Trento, Italy: Associazione Micologica Bresadola): [i-vi] 714 pp. (2000). PEGLER, D.N., SPOONER, B.M. & YOUNG, T.W.K. British Truffles a Revision of British Hypogeous Fungi (Kew, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens): [i-viii], 216 pp., 26 plates (1993). RIMOCZI, I., CSILLAG, A., ALBERT, L. & BRATEK, Z. Sporen-Charakterisierung von Arten aus den Familien Tuberaceae, Hydnotriaceae, Terfeziaceae und Elaphomycetaceae mit Hilfe von SEM-Daten [Characterization of spores of species in the families Tuberaceae, Hydnotriaceae, Terfeziaceae and Elaphomycetaceae by means of SEM data]. Zeitschrift für Mykologie 58 (2): 121-127 (1992). SHENG, X.-A. Two species of Hydnotrya in Xizang. Mycosystema 19 (4): 568-569 (2000). TURNBULL, E. Not only nuts in May… Mycologist 9 (2): 82-83 (1995).

See also the following internet pages:

http://aropath.lanl.gov/Organisms/Acronyms_sorted_by_species.html (aromatic metabolic pathways);
http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lietuvos_raudonoji_knyga (red listing for Lithuania);
http://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/RoteListePflanzen.pdf (red listing for Germany);
http://www.danbif.dk/Documents/fungi1.pdf/download (occurrence in Denmark);
http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5489e/y5489e14.htm (listing as edible by FAO);
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/7331/n96b.html (occurrence in Wisconsin, USA);
http://www.icbemp.gov/science/wicklow2.pdf (occurrence in the Owyhee Region, Idaho & Oregon, USA);
http://www.macroclub.ru/glr/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=-236&pos=129 (occurrence in Moscow oblast, Russia);
http://www.nybg.org/botany/mori/mori/Curator_paintings/Halling/CostaRican_oakforest.htm (Mori, S.A. & M. Rothman. 2003 onward. Paintings representing the work of systematic botanists at The New York Botanical Garden);
http://www.uni-greifswald.de/~mycology/rl-mv.htm (red listing for Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns, Germany);
www3.lanuv.nrw.de/static/infosysteme/roteliste/pdfs/s259.pdf (red listing for Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany);
www9.pref.kyoto.lg.jp/kankyo/rdb/bio/fungi.html (red listing for Kyoto Prefecture, Japan).