A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Auricularia delicata
Hard to describe. These jelly fungus have large dark purplish fruiting bodies that generally have a floppy upside down bowl appearance, although shapes can vary greatly. They are very soft bodied and floppy. The underside is porous, which differentiates it from a couple other species of jelly fungus I found.
Found on the trunk of a fallen tree in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador very near the Peruvian border (300 masl).
Internet says (and they couldn't say it if it wasn't true 😊): If you are not put off by the strange appearance and sombre colour of the Jelly Ear fungus, it is in fact edible when cooked and very popular in some eastern countries. Can anyone verify that?????
Spotted on Jan 27, 2020
Submitted on Feb 2, 2020
4 Comments
Thanks Dawn, and greetings to your class.
We really like your picture! We are class learning about wildlife and place around the world. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Zlatan. That's what I'm finding online too. From the looks of it, I would guess it would seem leathery or rubbery. We'll have to see if Machi has ever done a taste and spit test on any of these :-)
Well - not sure about A. delicata, but Jew's ear or Juda's ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) is apparently the one found in Chinese and Vietnamese tasty soups... a bit leathery, but tasty...