On a recent walk along the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Beech Forest Trail, I noticed some rather unique knobby fungus protruding from a fallen oak. iNaturalist helped me quickly identify it as poor man’s licorice (Bulgaria inquinans), also known as black bulgar or black jelly drops, as they somewhat resemble licorice or black gumdrops. Despite its resemblance to these edible sweets, poor man’s licorice is not considered to be edible. It is also not closely related at all to the group of similar looking jelly fungus. 

The fruiting bodies of poor man’s licorice begin relatively flat-topped at first, and transition to slightly cup shaped as they mature. The cluster I found this past weekend contained examples of all stages of its development. The upper fertile surface (i.e., where the spores are produced/released) is black and shiny, while the outer sides of the fungus are felty and dark brown. It commonly grows in dense masses, as it was in this case. I was surprised to find that these fungi were relatively soft and rubbery, as they’d looked like they would be quite hard.  

This species is apparently fairly common and widespread in European woodlands, but is also found throughout much of eastern North America. This is however, the first time I’ve encountered it. Poor man’s licorice is found on dead oaks, beech, or ash; the ones pictured here were found on a fallen oak. It is also most commonly observed between October and March. So, perhaps now that I’ve noticed it once, I’ll have a better search image for it this fall/winter and will notice it elsewhere. 

What interesting fungi have you encountered on your wanderings lately?