Auricularia auricula-judae

Auricularia auricula-judae (Jelly Ear)

Fruiting:

Auricularia auricula-judae has been found in every month of the year in Scotland. Interestingly if you look at the months that it has been recorded in for England and Wales there are two distinct peaks - in April and May and again in September, October and November. In Scotland, the autumn fruiting peak is less obvious with elevated occurrence in September and October and most records evenly spread from January until May.

Habitat:

Auricularia is a genus of wood rotting species, possibly weakly parasitic, usually found in damp broadleaved woodlands with plenty of dead wood. A. auricula-judae fruits on deciduous trees and shrubs and exhibits a particular preference for elder (Sambucus nigra). It is this latter preference that lead to its naming - the ear reference 'auricula' is obvious from the shape of the fruiting structure but 'judae' has arisen from the story that Judus Iscariot hung himself from an elder tree, after his betrayal of Jesus Christ. For many years this lead to the common name of 'Jew's Ear' which the English Name project was unhappy with. Although I personally think that 'Judas Ear' would have avoided any unwanted overtones without loss of the story, Jelly Ear was the name finally recommended.

There has been interest recently in the possibility that climate change is involved in an apparent broadening of host preference by this fungus and so if you are recording, do pay attention to what species of tree or shrub it is fruiting on.

Distribution:

The Checklist gives the distribution of A. auricula-judae as ‘common’ throughout with over 9000 records from the UK (FRDBI 2014). Scotland however only boasts 316 records and a glance at the NBN Atlas Scotland map gives you an idea of how patchily distributed it is in Scotland. Is this a more southern species or are we just missing it?