Cultural Depictions
The species is referred to in Christopher Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta. Iathamore proclaims: "The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder when he hanged himself". Later, the species was probably partially the inspiration for Emily Dickinson's poem beginning "The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants", which depicts a mushroom as the "ultimate betrayer". Dickinson had both a religious and naturalistic background, and so it is more than likely that she knew of the common name of A. auricula-judae, and of the folklore surrounding Judas's suicide.
Or could she one contemn —
Had Nature an Apostate —
Read more about this topic: Auricularia Auricula-judae
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