| Auricularia heimuer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| CultivatedAuricularia heimuer | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Auriculariales |
| Family: | Auriculariaceae |
| Genus: | Auricularia |
| Species: | A. heimuer |
| Binomial name | |
| Auricularia heimuer F. Wu, B.K. Cui, Y.C. Dai (2014) | |
| Auricularia heimuer | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 黑木耳 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "black wood ear" | ||||||||||||||||
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Auricularia heimuer, also known asheimuer (Chinese:黑木耳;pinyin:hēimù'ěr) orblack wood ear, is aspecies offungus in theorderAuriculariales. It is commercially cultivated for food in China at a value exceeding $4 billion (USD) per year. The species was previously referred to as the EuropeanAuricularia auricula-judae, but the latter is not known to occur in East Asia.Auricularia heimuer is a popular ingredient in many Chinese dishes, such ashot and sour soup, and it is also used intraditional Chinese medicine.
Fruitbodies are gelatinous, ear-shaped, and laterally attached to wood. They are up to 12 centimetres (4+3⁄4 inches) across and1.5 mm (1⁄16 in) thick. The upper surface is finelytomentose, coloured fawn to reddish brown when fresh, and coloured grey-brown when dry. The colour of cultivated specimens is often darker. The spore-producing underside is smooth to slightly veined, coloured pinkish buff when fresh, and coloured purplish grey when dry.[1]
Thebasidia are cylindrical, 40–65 x 3–6.5 μm, with three transversesepta. Thebasidiospores are allantoid (sausage shaped), 11–13 x 4–5 μm. Hairs on the upper surface are 50–150 x 4–6,5 μm. When cross-sectioned, a medulla (a central band of parallelhyphae) is normally present.[1]
The AsianAuricularia villosula is very similar, but distinguishable microscopically by its shorter hairs (30–70 μm long). Some strains of heimuer cultivated in China have proved to beA. villosula.[2] The EuropeanA. auricula-judae is superficially similar, but it is not as dark as cultivatedA. heimuer and microscopically distinguishable by its larger basidia and spores, the latter measuring 14.5–18 x 5–6 μm. Fruitbodies of both these species lack a medulla when cross-sectioned.[3]
A. heimuer was described in 2014 as a result ofmolecular research, based oncladistic analysis ofDNA sequences, into wild and cultivated species ofAuricularia in China.[1] This research revealed that the most frequently cultivated species was previously misdetermined asAuricularia auricula-judae, a species confined to Europe, and was instead a separate and distinctive species restricted to east Asia. It was given the nameAuricularia heimuer based on the Chinese vernacular name for the fungus: heimuer (黑木耳), which translates to black wood ear.[1]
Auricularia heimuer is awood-rotting species, typically found on the dead standing or fallen wood ofbroadleaf trees. In the wild, it occurs most frequently onoak (Quercus) trees[1] and less frequently on other broadleaf trees. In cultivation, it is sometimes grown on broadleaf logs, and is more commonly grown ongrowing media containing sawdust.
The species occurs in temperate areas of northern China,[1] as well as the Russian Far East,[1] Korea,[4] and Japan.[5]
In China, the use of anAuricularia species, probablyA. heimuer, as a food and a medicine was recorded in the 3rd-century Chinese medicinal bookShennong Ben Cao Jing.[2] Species were being cultivated in China as early as theTang dynasty (618–907).Li Shizhen, in hisPen Tsao Kang Mu, quotes Tang Ying-chuan from that period as saying "put the steamed bran on logs, cover with straw, Wood Ear will grow".[6] The fungus is widely used as an ingredient in savoury dishes and is also cooked and served as a salad with vegetables and flavourings. A soup containing the species is used medicinally for dealing with colds and fevers in the belief that it reduces the heat of the body.[7][8] According to a 2010 publication, the annual production ofAuricularia species worldwide is the fourth highest among all industrially cultivated culinary andmedicinal mushrooms.[9] The estimated annual output in China in 2013 was 4.75 billion kg in fresh weight, with a value of about four billion US dollars.[2]
In Japan, the fungus is known askikurage (キクラゲ;lit. "wood jellyfish") and is commonly shredded and used as a topping inramen.[citation needed] A 2018 Japanese study surveyed 26 local specimens originally determined asA. auricula-judae. The molecular identification was as follows: 4 samples ofA. heimuer, 7 ofA. minutissima, 10 ofA. villosula, and 5 ofA. thailandica.[10]
In Korea, the mushroom is calledheuk-mogi (Korean: 흑목이;Hanja: 黑木耳). It is commercially cultivated[4][11] and commonly used injapchae.[12]
The PokémonToedscool and Toedscruel are partially based on these mushrooms.