King Alfred's Cakes

I love all mushrooms but these are something a little unusual, even for fungi. Legend has it that King Alfred the Great was left to watch over some cakes baking, but being preoccupied, forgot about them and they burnt. These tough 'shrooms resemble burnt cakes, hence their name. If we're being scientific about it, they're really called Daldinia concentrica as their insides have a concentric pattern.

Much like burnt cakes, they are largely regarded as inedible, although they're not dangerous to eat. They have been used to relieve cramps according to folk remedy and are sometimes known as Cramp Balls. You're most likely to see them attached to dead ash and beech trees, amongst other broadleaved trees and whilst they are in season during the summer to autumn, they can hang about for many years!

Puffball in action!

Thank you cheesescones for telling me exactly why puffballs are so named. Fascinating!

Token mushrooms

American geocachers seem to be pretty big on token items that cachers leave behind in caches as a way of showing that they've been there, in addition to signing the log. I've not really seen this here in the UK, with the exception of business card style "We found it" notes which are pretty cool, but can quickly clutter up a cache and tend to go a bit manky when exposed to the elements.

I've never really given much thought to token items although I did wonder if it would be practical to leave a little carved mushroom or something in the caches I find. I couldn't work out how I would do that (cheaply!) so I stopped considering it.

Until ukgeocachers.co.uk advertised personalised engraved wooden tags. I drew a picture of a couple of 'shrooms and got them engraved. The service I received was top quality. Not only did I get a nice batch of tags sent to me, but they came straight away too! Now I've just got to start leaving them somewhere. I hope the happy mushrooms bring a smile to future cachers' faces!

Bizarre fungus in Madeira

I've seen quite a few weird and wonderful fungi in the UK and been able to identify many of them through my vast tomes of British mushrooms and toadstools but these were not able to help me with an odd fungus I saw in abundance on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

I thought this particular species of fungus quite closely resembled a walnut in shape and colour although I wasn't tempted to eat it.

I thought that it would be easy to track down the name of this fungus online, especially since it was so widespread in Madeira, but it seemed particularly elusive to track down. By looking for "Madeira fungo" on google.pt I managed to find something which appeared very similar to that which I had seen myself whilst on holiday. Locally it is known as "madre-louro" (mother bay) and its Latin name is Laurobasidium Lauri. You won't find it here in the UK, which made this particular encounter very exciting for me!

Growing fungi

Thank you Lil and Fay - my fungi are growing in number and look excellent by my bed. :D

The quintessential toadstool

I remember when I thought that toadstools that were bright red with white spots were just fabrication invented for children's illustrations and cartoons. Then I discovered the highly toxic fly agaric. I seem to see it all the time now (well, it's very conspicuous!) but it's amazing just how many different types of fungi we walk past all the time, even if we don't go traipsing through strange woodlands on a regular basis.