Jew's-ear

A mistranslation of mediaeval Latin auricula Judae (“Judas's ear”), from its shape, and its occurrence on the tree on which Judas Iscariot was supposed to have hanged himself.

Jew's-ear (plural Jew's-ears)

1. A kind of edible fungus, Auricularia auricula-judae, growing on tree-trunks, formerly used for medicinal purposes.
   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XIX:

     Hither also may be referr'd those multitudes and varieties of Mushroms, such as that, call'd Jews-ears, all sorts of gray and green Mosses, &c.

   • 1979, Angela Carter, ‘The Erl-King’, The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 99:

     Over the hearth hang bunches of drying mushrooms, the thin, curling kind they call jew's-ears, which have grown on the elder trees since Judas hanged himself on one; this is the kind of lore he tells me, tempting my half-belief.