Wood Ear and Cloud Ear

Also wood-ear, tree ear, black fungus, ear fungus, Jew’s ear, kikurage (Japanese), mo-er and mu-ehr and variations (Chinese)

Wood ear is the name most often applied to this type of fungus, which (with its kin) is associated almost exclusively with the Far East. Unlike many edibles that move from a limited market based on ethnic use to a broader population, wood ears have stayed within the culinary confines of those who have long cultivated them. “Long” in this case is a startling period: “According to records from China circa 600 a.d., this mushroom is heralded as the first species to be cultivated” (Paul Stamets, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms).