King Alfred’s Cake Fungus
Here’s a photo of the inedible fungus Daldinia Concentrica which is most commonly known as “King Alfred’s Cake”. They’re all over the place near us, growing mostly on dead and decaying wood, especially ash trees.
Also known as cramp balls and coal fungus, it gets its popular name from the legend of King Alfred who when hiding during war was put in charge of baking cakes. He fell asleep and the cakes burned. And no doubt his cakes looked like this fungus!
Bepton Ranger 