Item:Auricularia Polytricha
Auricularia Polytricha also known as Wood Ear or Ear Fungus or Jew's Ear.
Normally found on dead wood, or on dead parts of living trees. It forms flabby cup or ear-shaped brackets of a dull grey-brown colour, becoming a blue-grey colour as they age.
It is edible, and is used in Chinese dishes. It was exported to New Zealand, mainly from the Taranaki area in the latter part of the 1800's, we called Chew Chong.The fungus wasn’t exportded to other country until the 1960’s,when the Taiwanese discovered ways of commercially producing it on sawdust