Country diary: jelly ears on rotting wood listen out for rain

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Also known as wood ear, this brown fungus is waiting to release thousands of sporesThere is something uncannily alien about living jelly. Lobes of brown, gelatinous fungus growing out of dead and fallen branches are jelly ear,Auricularia auricula-judae. Once called the Judas ’s ear fungus because it often grows on the elder, the tree Judas Iscariot was supposed to have hanged himself on, it was mistranslated in the casual racism of 16th-century English as Jew’s ear.Also known aswood ear, it has an orangey brown to a deep chocolatey colour. It is edible (not tried it yet) and, as the “fungus sambuca” of the old herbalists, has a medicinal history as a cure for sore throat and jaundice and as an astringent; it is used more widely in Chinese medicine. It contains chemicals that are anti-tumour, hypoglycaemic and cholesterol-lowering; as a source of natural melanin it has great potential in the fields of pharmacology, cosmetics and nutraceuticals – foods containing additional functional ingredients such as antioxidants, phytochemicals and vitamins.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Fungi Plants Environment Rivers Biology Science Source Type: news