Daldinia concentrica
Encyclopedia
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
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

 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
Ascus
An ascus is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. On average, asci normally contain eight ascospores, produced by a meiotic cell division followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or species can number one , two, four, or multiples...

 are cylindrical and arranged inside the flask-shaped perithecium
Ascocarp
An ascocarp, or ascoma , is the fruiting body of an ascomycete fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and may contain millions of asci, each of which typically contains eight ascospores...

. 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
Squalene
Squalene is a natural organic compound originally obtained for commercial purposes primarily from shark liver oil, though plant sources are used as well, including amaranth seed, rice bran, wheat germ, and olives. All plants and animals produce squalene, including humans...

. 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.

Caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s of the concealer moth Harpella forficella
Harpella forficella
Harpella forficella is a species of the concealer moth family , wherein it belongs to subfamily Oecophorinae. It is found in Europe.The wingspan is 19-29 mm. The adults fly from June to September, depending on the location....

have been found to eat this fungus.

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