EDIBLE FUNGI 109 



In the Tagalog provinces the general name for all edible mush- 

 rooms is kabuti. Specific names are applied to particular forms, 

 often according to the place in which they are produced. Kabu- 

 teng mamarang is the meadow mushroom; kabuteng ginikan is 

 the mushroom grown on the rice straw; kabuteng saging is the 

 one growing on bananas ; kabuteng taingang dagd is the common 

 rat's ear fungus or the so-called Jew's ear in America. Bukui 

 and kulat are terms also applied to rather leathery fungi. In 

 Pampanga the ordinary umbrella like mushroom is called kuat 

 or payung-payungan, and the rat's ear type commonly known as 

 bukui is frequently termed balugbug daguis. In Kalinga Prov- 

 ince it is called talinga ti otot; in Leyte, ulaping; in Negros and 

 Iloilo, ohong; in Camarines, tobo; in Zambales, dakaakan; in 

 Cagayan and Isabela, karulu. — In Pangasinan and Iloko dialects 

 the word oong is used. 



The following fungi are most generally eaten and many could 

 be grown on a commercial scale. 



Family AURICULARIACEAE 



Genus AURICULARIA 



Hymenium inferior, distantly and vaguely ribbed and plicate, 

 swollen when moist, and rather tremelloid, collapsing when dry. 

 Spores oblong, hyaline.* 



The genus Auricularia is found generally throughout the Phil- 

 ippines as well as throughout the entire world. The fungi are 

 commonly called taiiigang-daga or rat's ear in the Tagalog dia- 

 lect and Jew's ear in America. All forms are foliaceous, gelatin- 

 ous plants when moist and leathery when dry. The spore 

 bearing body, or hymenium, is normally on the lower side. 



The Auricidaria types may be purchased in the markets of 

 almost every large town in the Philippines. Large shipments 

 are imported each year from China. In many of the famous 

 Chinese dishes the taingang-daga is always present along with 

 other vegetables and meat. It is shipped in the dry state, as one 

 of the characters of the fungus is that it dries into a hard brittle 

 form, but upon soaking, it again assumes its normal gelatinous 

 character. These fungi are not very highly esteemed by Euro- 

 peans, for when cooked they are tough and lack flavor. 



While the fungi grow as luxuriantly in the Philippines as 

 in any other part of the world, little commercial use is made of 



* Descriptions of genera have been taken from Cooke, M. C. Hand- 

 book of Australian Fungi. 1892. 



