Three unknown fungi on oak log - probably very common!

Pete Collins · #1 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 06:38 PM

Sorry, I know next to nothing about fungi, but I saw these on a log today and wondered if someone could tell me what they are. I'm sure they're very common. Judging by the leaves around it, I think the log they were growing on was oak (but I know almost as little about trees as I do about fungi!

).

Thanks a lot,

Pete

mollisia · #2 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 07:17 PM

Hallo pete,

the first two pictures show the same fungus, in old and in young state. It is called Daldinia, but the species can only be named when microscopical and chemotaxonomical details are known. Some 20 years ago it would have been called Daldinia concentrica, but nowadays we know, that there are many more species in this complex which cannot be identified macroscopically. I doubt that the substrate it grows on is Quercus. I have never heard of Daldinia growing on oak. The most frequent trees that are beset with these species are Acer (sycamore), Alnus, Fraxinus, Populus (poplar) and Salix (willow). But there are more than these.
The third one is most likely to be Polyporus varius/leptocephalus, which usually occurs on Fagus (beech). I have seen it sometimes on other trees as well, but don't remember besides Alnus on which.

best regards,
Andreas

Pete Collins · #3 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 08:29 PM

Thanks very much Andreas - I wasn't expecting a reply all the way from Germany!

About the time you were posting, I was looking in the Fungi section of the WAB Gallery, and I had guessed that the first two were King Alfred's cakes or Cramp balls - Daldinia concentrica. From what you are saying, it's actually more complicated than that, but to a non-fungi person like me I'm happy to think of it as King Alfred's Cakes.

I thought the log was oak because there were oak leaves around it and the log looked similar to the surrounding trees in the hedgerow. It had a rough, fractured bark, not really like the smooth bark of beech (beech is very common on the chalk hills where I live).

Thanks again.

mollisia · #4 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 08:49 PM

Hello Pete,

I admit that the wood looks very much like oak indeed. Could it be perhaps big Sambucus? But may just again one of the examples, that fungi grow in other regions in other ecological circumstances as one is used to from ones own area.

best regards,
Andreas

Pete Collins · #5 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 09:04 PM

Hi Andreas,

I've just Googled "King Alfred's Cakes" and "oak", and found a few examples of it occurring on oak, though it seems it's most often found on ash.