Auricularia Auricula-judae - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The species was first mentioned in the scientific literature as Tremella auricula by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 Species Plantarum, and later (1789) described by Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard as Tremella auricula-judae. However, the genus Tremella is now reserved for fungal species that live as parasites on other fungi. Tremella auricula-judae is now considered a basionym. In 1791, Bulliard transferred the species to the genus Peziza. In 1822, Elias Magnus Fries transferred the species to Exidia, and, in so doing, sanctioned the name. In 1860, Miles Joseph Berkeley described the species as a member of Hirneola, a genus described by Fries in 1848, now considered synonymous with Auricularia. The species was given the name Auricularia auricula-judae in 1888 by Joseph Schröter. The specific name of A. auricula-judae comprises auricula, the Latin word meaning ear, and Judae, meaning of Judas. Under binomial nomenclature, a species name can comprise only two words; but the taxonomists responsible for this naming hyphenated the specific name to "bend the rules" and keep the name "within the letter of the law". The name was criticised by mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd, who said "Auricularia auricula-Judae is cumbersome and in addition is a slander on the Jews". Though critical of Lucien Marcus Underwood, saying he "would probably not have known the Jew's ear from the calves' liver", he followed him in using Auricularia auricula, which was in turn used by Bernard Lowy in an article on the entire genus. Despite this, Auricularia auricula-judae is the currently recognised name for the species by many sources, though Auricularia auricula is still occasionally used. As well as the obligate synonyms from Bulliard, Fries and Berkeley, there are numerous other synonymous names. Mycologist George Willard Martin, writing in 1943, noted that the species was known by at least 12 binomials, of which none appeared to be valid, and noted that "the citations given for the various names are extremely erratic". Mycologist Mary F. Barrett attributes "such multiplication of names" to "the wide distribution of the Judas' ear, its ability to grow upon many different kinds of decaying wood, and to its great variation in size, colour and shape".

The fungus is associated with Judas Iscariot because of the belief that he hanged himself on an elder tree after his betrayal of Jesus Christ. Folklore suggests that the ears are Judas's returned spirit, and are all that are left to remind us of his suicide. The common name of the fungus was originally Judas's ear, but this was later shortened to Judas ear and, in the late 19th century, shortened again to Jew's ear. Common names for the fungus which refer to Judas can be traced back to at least the end of the 16th century; for instance, in the 17th century, Thomas Browne wrote of the species:

In Jews' ears something is conceived extraordinary from the name, which is in propriety but fungus sambucinus, or an excrescence about the roots of elder, and concerneth not the nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit he hanged on this tree; and is become a famous medicine in quinsies, sore throats, and strangulations, ever since.

While the term Jew's meat was a deprecatory term used for all fungi in the Middle Ages, the term is unrelated to the name Jew's ear. A further change of name to jelly ear was recommended in the List of Recommended Names for Fungi. The idea was rejected by mycologist Patrick Harding who considered it "to be the result of political correctness where it is not necessary", and who "will continue to call Jew's ear", explaining that, while anti-Semitism was commonplace in Britain, the name Jew's ear is in reference to Judas, who was a Jew. However, the name has been adopted in some recent field guides. Unrelated common names include the ear fungus, common ear fungus, the Chinese Fungus, the pig's ear, the wood ear, the black wood ear, the tree ear and Kikurage. The species was known as "fungus sambuca" among herbalists, in reference to Sambuca, the generic name for elder.