English: Judas's Ear; Jew's ear; Black wood ear; Jelly ear; Ear fungus; Common ear fungus; Chinese Fungus; Pig's ear; Wood ear; Black wood ear; Tree ear; Kikurage"; Fungus sambuca.
Synonyme: Tremella auricula; Tremella auricula-judae.
Name: is derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree.
German: German Judasohr.
French: Oreille de Judas.
Region: widespread, worldwide, temperate and sub-tropical; Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa.
Habitat: on dead and living wood, especially elder, 90% of cases.
Use: edible; widely consumed in the West, China; not held in high regard, likened to "eating an Indian rubber with bones in it"; it can be dried and rehydrated; needing to be cooked thoroughly.

MycologyThe fruiting body has a noticeably ear-like shape and brown colouration; it grows upon wood, especially elder. The surface of the fruit bodies is often covered in tiny, downy hairs, as well as folds and wrinkles. The fruit bodies become darker with ageing, ± 5cm across, distinctively shaped like a floppy ear, normally attached to the substrate laterally and sometimes by a very short stalk. The texture is tough, gelatinous, elastic when fresh, but hard and brittle when dried, bright reddish-tan-brown with a purplish hint, often covered in tiny, downy hairs of a grey colour. It is smooth when young, or undulating with folds and wrinkles, sometimes with veins. The spores are long, sausage shaped, white, cream or yellowish, hyaline, ejected from the underside. The basidia are elongated, cylindrical, with three transverse septa. It commonly grows solitarily