Oreja de Judas (Auricularia auricula-judae)

The species was long thought to be somewhat variable in colour, habitat, and microscopic features but cosmopolitan in distribution, though Lowy considered it a temperate species and doubted that it occurred in the tropics.[8] Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has, however, shown that Auricularia auricula-judae as previously understood comprises at least seven different species worldwide.[4][5] Since A. auricula-judae was originally described from Europe, the name is now restricted to the European species. The commercially cultivated Chinese and East Asian species, still frequently marketed and described as A. auricula-judae or A. auricula, is Auricularia heimuer (black wood ear).[3]