Snow fungus

What it is

Tremella fuciformis is a gelatinous fungus with white, frond-like fruiting bodies. It is also called snow ear and white jelly mushroom. Its body is soft and translucent when wet, which gives the dried product its character in soups and desserts.

In the wild the fungus grows on dead broadleaf wood, where it parasitises a wood-rotting fungus rather than living on the tree itself. The University of Wisconsin mycology page describes this ecology, and it is the reason the species was hard to grow on purpose: the fungus needed its host fungus, and the cultivation history reflects that.

How it came into cultivation

The University of Wisconsin page says that for many centuries Tremella eluded cultivation. Early growers tried to grow it on wooden poles, and the later improvements came from inoculating poles with spores or mycelium. That account describes a shift from gathering wild fruiting bodies to farming them, although the page does not date the change.

The sources consulted differ on when farming began. One gives about 1914 as the start of cultivation in China and newer techniques arriving in 1968, but the search summary treats that source as less authoritative. The sources agree that cultivation is long established in China, and this page does not choose a start date.

Scale is recorded only loosely. One summary of a reference source gives an estimated production in China in 1997 of 130,000 tonnes. The figure is recorded here as a single source's estimate and should be checked against a primary statistical source before it is quoted.

Its place in food

In Chinese cooking the sources say snow fungus is traditionally used in sweet dishes, and that cheaper cultivated supply has brought it into some savoury dishes as well. The use is a matter of cuisine, and this page does not give recipes or a method.

Health and cosmetic claims

The sources record use in traditional Chinese medicine and in cosmetics, including products in China, Korea and Japan. Health claims, such as treatment for coughs or tuberculosis, come from traditional or commercial sources. The sources reviewed do not establish those claims clinically, and this page does not endorse them.

Handling and open questions

The sources consulted do not give a storage life, a drying method or a rehydration ratio, so this page gives none. Buy dried material from a supplier who names the species.

Open questions: the start date of cultivation, the production figures and a primary account of the Chinese culinary history all need better sources. The naming of the species by Berkeley in 1856 comes from a search summary and is not checked against the original description.