Cramp Balls

Always good to have an arresting title! Also known as King Alfred's cakes (after the historical story), Daldinia concentrica is a fungus almost everyone walking in the woods will have noticed. It grows almost exclusively on dead Ash trees and looks like a seriously burnt bun. One of the interesting features is that if you prise one off the bark you can see the concentric circles of the growth pattern, rather like tree rings. An even more interesting feature is that this species has been found to have over 100 species of invertebrates living in it. I really ought to put these two back in the wood!