I can't find one in the uk. I would find an branch or two from the wild and add them in your pile and hope they set from spores. Elder trees are often the best source to find them...Ash as well.

Never heard of these - are they the same as Jews Ear fungus? That sometimes grows on our elder.

Yes Sterra..Them's the ones

Thanks for your comments! Hmmm, I just chucked out a whole load of elder branches that I cut down to get some light in the garden. But none had anything growing on it... I'll keep an eye out, but to be truthful, I wouldn't trust myself with picking anything from the wild, and I don't have any experience in cultivating spores. Might have to go for oyster mushroom dowels if I can't get wood ear!

Were you going to eat them? They don't look very appetising to me - I bet they'll be all squishy and rubbery.I don't think you need worry about identification in the wild - nothing else like that grows on elder.

They are said to have medicinal properties Sterra...but what they do is absorb all the flavours of what they are cooked in. Oysters are much the same.

We eat dried 'mu er' at home all the time because my wife is Chinese. That's why I wanted to grow some. They are sort of rubbery and as you say, they taste like whatever you cook it in. Normally some sort of soup. When I first tried them I didn't really like them at all, but now I'm more used to it.

Try typing ' Mo-er' rather than Mu-er

I think a few days with a fungi guide would be a perfect gift for you. They are abundant.