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| April 12th 2013 |
Judas Iscariot (goes an old tale I'd never heard before until I looked it up) hanged himself on an elderberry tree.
The fungus Auricularia auricula-judae can be found growing on elder trees.
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| April 12th 2013 |
The inside looks like the whirly bits of an ear.
So it got the name 'Judas' Ear' which morphed into 'Jew's Ear' - Jew's Ear Fungus.
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| April 11th 2013 |
It looks as if it's made of jelly - the kind you buy in packets of sweets, not the kind you have for pudding - so it's called 'Jelly Ear' as well.
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| February 20th 2011 |
When I first came upon it, it was on a fallen log in a wood and shaped differently. It was more orange than brown. Some had the eary whirls inside but others were smooth arches. (All were low down and in good light and easier to photograph!)
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| April 11th 2013 |
The fungus in these up-to-date pictures was growing on an elderberry tree - one in the clump we are following. Our very own Jew's Ear on our very own Elderberry tree. (A bit too brittle for hanging on!)
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| April 11th 2013 |
All pretty things come to an end. I hope my ears don't look like this when I am old.
Anyone know the source of the legend?
Or who first said Judas gave elderberry leaves their smell by hanging himself on an elder tree?
