King Alfred's Cake cooking in the sun

_ABU3272
Quite pleased with this as you do not normally find them up in the air and having available light around them. If you want to view more Cramp balls / Kind Alfred's cake
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 take a spark from traditional flint and steel. 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. Citation Wikipedia

Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Subdivision: Pezizomycotina
Class: Sordariomycetes
Subclass: Xylariomycetidae
Order: Xylariales
Family: Xylariaceae
Genus: Daldinia
Species: D. concentrica

EOS Canon 7D
EF-S15-85mm plus 10mm extension

Great Combley Woods, Havenstreet, , Isle of Wight

Taken on: January 2, 2014

Tags:

Combley woods

bulbous

king alfred

mushroom

tree

trees

dead

wood

Daldinia

concentrica

King Alfreds Cake

cramp balls

coal fungus

Fungi

Division:

Ascomycota

Pezizomycotina

Sordariomycetes

Xylariomycetidae

Xylariales

Xylariaceae

combley

havenstreet

isle of wight

hampshire

england

black

ash

coal

FungiDivision:

AscomycotaSubdivision:

PezizomycotinaClass:

SordariomycetesSubclass:

XylariomycetidaeOrder:

XylarialesFamily:

XylariaceaeGenus:

DaldiniaSpecies:

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Camera: Canon EOS 7D, f/5.6, 1/40 sec, 85mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 7D
Lens:	EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Focal Length:	85mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 (Windows)
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