The Woods have Ears

I spotted a few of these today. They're Wood ears. Or Jelly ears.

Auricularia auricula-Judae is one of our stranger and more bizarre British fungi. They're reddish-brown, weirdly gelatinous and floppy, they grow on wood - especially elder - and have a noticeably ear-like shape. When I was a child, everyone called them Jew's ears but this was not any kind of racist epithet. The name is a corruption of 'Judas's ears' because of the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree. As far back as the 17th century, Thomas Browne wrote of the species: 

'In Jews' ears something is conceived extraordinary from the name, which is in propriety but fungus sambucinus, or an excrescence about the roots of elder, and concerneth not the nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit he hanged on this tree; and is become a famous medicine in quinsies, sore throats, and strangulations, ever since.' 

In these more culturally sensitive days, we've adopted the Chinese name of Wood Ears, or sometimes Jelly Ears. 

As Browne wrote, it was used a lot in folk medicine as a poultice to treat inflammations of the eye. And the 16th-century herbalist John Gerard, writing in 1597, recommended boiling the fungus in milk, or else leaving them steeped in beer, which would then be sipped slowly in order to cure a sore throat (quinsy).

Surprisingly, they are edible but only after being thoroughly cooked. I did try them once and, frankly, it wasn't worth the effort. The taste is bland and the texture isn't pleasant. They are best used in soups and for making stocks by dehydrating and grinding to a powder. A related species from Asia is used in some Chinese dishes. 

They're welcome to it. 

There are tastier mushrooms out there.