Anyone know what this growth is called?

Jack_regan

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Has anyone come across it before? I'm guessing it's a fungus of some sort but if anyone can put a name to it that would be great.

Thanks

Chiliroses

Hey Jack, it looks alot like Daldinia Concentrica or King Alfred's Cake, as far as I know it grows mainly on deciduous trees, if I were u though I'd get an experienced forester or horticulturist to have a look at it for u though. Hope u get it sorted out.

Jack_regan

Thanks very much for the reply Chiliroses. Fair play to you, you're spot on. It's an ash stump that has been lying on the ground for a few years that it is growing on. It's great to finally know what it is. I first saw the "Daldinia concentrica" about three years on a pile of logs that I had stored in the open air, so I've been wondering what it was since then.


Below is the blurb from Wikipedia about it. At least I now that I can't eat it but it looks like I've got myself some free fire lighters. Anyway thanks again for the reply. Much appreciated.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daldinia_concentrica

The inedible fungus Daldinia concentrica is known by several common names, including King Alfred's Cake, cramp balls, and coal fungus. It can be found in North America and Europe, where it lives on dead and decaying wood, especially on felled ash trees. It is a common, widespread saprotroph.
The fungus is ball-shaped, with a hard, friable, shiny black fruiting body 2 to 7 centimeters wide. It resembles a chunk of coal, which gives it several of its common names, including coal fungus and carbon balls. According to legend, King Alfred once hid out in a countryside homestead during war, and was put in charge of removing baking from the oven when it was done. He fell asleep and the cakes burned. Daldinia concentrica is said to resemble a cake left to this fate.
The flesh of the fungus is purple, brown, or silvery-black inside, and is arranged in concentric layers. Each layer represents a season of reproduction. The asci are cylindrical and arranged inside the flask-shaped perithecium. When each ascus becomes engorged with fluid it extends outside the perithecium and releases spores.
D. concentrica contains several unique compounds, including a purple pigment from a perylene quinone and a metabolite called concentricol, which is oxidized squalene. Many types of insects and other small animals make their home inside this species of fungus.
The fungus is a useful form of tinder for fire-lighting. The brown variety is usually too heavy and dense to be much good; the black variety is lighter and better. It does need to be completely dry, whereupon it will easily take a spark from a firesteel. It burns slowly, much like a charcoal briquette, with a particularly pungent smoke. Once lit it is quite difficult to extinguish, but fragments can be broken off and transferred to a tinder ball to create an open flame.
Caterpillars of the concealer moth Harpella forficella have been found to eat this fungus.

Jack_regan

I can't eat it but looks like I've got myself some free fire lighters.

I think I'll stick with the matches for lighting purposes, hopefully it will be a bit quicker than the knife and firesteel combo.:)

Oldtree

If it be firestarters you want then the skin off birch bark has a resin in it that goes up quick. Also birch twigs that are caught up in the tree off the ground will help you start a fire even in the rain even with a knife and firesteel combo.

King Alfred's Cakes is a type of white rot and is not usually significant for the safety of a tree, usually on smaller branches and twigs that have died of another cause.

Chiliroses

haha! thats a good one, u could start your own firelighters business. Thats great that its not potentially harmful, now that I come to think of it I've only ever seen it on rotting dead wood. My grandaunts a great woman for the names of plants, lichens and fungi, thats where I got the name from.

Jack_regan

Chiliroses wrote: »

My grandaunts a great woman for the names of plants, lichens and fungi, thats where I got the name from.

I'll have to get out into the garden with the camera and see what other unusual organisms I can find to put her knowledge to the test.:)

No luck lighting my "Daldinia Concentrica" as of yet, I'd say it needs a few weeks beside the stove to dry out, not so sure it's a good idea bringing it indoors actually(see link below), might be safer to stick it in a box in the shed for drying purposes.

Here's a link to a guy who brought some indoors and the consequences.:eek:
http://www.aie.org.uk/vault/dchs.htm

Chiliroses

Jack_regan wrote: »

I'll have to get out into the garden with the camera and see what other unusual organisms I can find to put her knowledge to the test.:)



Here's a link to a guy who brought some indoors and the consequences.:eek:
http://www.aie.org.uk/vault/dchs.htm[/QUOTE] Eeeeww! that looks really gross, yeah probably better to keep it outside, I'd imagine breathing in those spores wouldn't be the best for the health!!