(More fully "cloud ear fungus", "cloud ear mushroom") an edible fungus, Auricularia polytricha, which grows in groups of brownish-grey fruiting bodies on dead wood and is used in East Asian cookery; also called black fungus, wood ear.
Origin
1950s.
Definition of cloud ear in US English:
cloud ear
noun
(More fully "cloud ear fungus", "cloud ear mushroom") an edible fungus, Auricularia polytricha, which grows in groups of brownish-grey fruiting bodies on dead wood and is used in East Asian cookery; also called black fungus, wood ear.