Daldinia childiae

🏷️ Description

Meet Daldinia childiae – the mysterious little fungus that looks like it rolled straight out of a coal mine! Known affectionately as carbon balls, crampballs, or King Alfred’s cakes, this wild mushroom is as fascinating as it is funky.

🧐 What’s in a Name? The genus Daldinia is named after Capuchin monk Agostino Daldini, while the species name childiae honors Marion Child, who penned the first monograph on the genus during her doctoral work. If you're browsing North American field guides, don’t be surprised to find this mushroom mislabeled as Daldinia concentrica – but that's a mostly European species. Our North American buddy is Daldinia childiae, loud and proud! 🇺🇸🌲

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

This tough little saprobe thrives on dead hardwood logs and occasionally conifers, growing alone or in clusters directly from the wood. Found year-round, it's most commonly spotted east of the Rockies, especially in places like Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Even when the snow falls, these coal-like fungi don’t flinch – their fruiting bodies persist through winter, earning them serious durability points ❄️💪.

🍪 Appearance & Anatomy

• Size: 0.79 to 1.97 inches (2 to 5 cm)

• Shape: Spherical, cushion-like, or even pear-shaped

• Surface: Smooth when young, later warty or pimply

• Color: Starts pinkish-brown or grayish-white → matures to dark brown, gray-black, or near black

Slice one open, and you’ll see alternating rings of light and dark tissue, like a mushroom tree ring 🌲🍰. These concentric zones are a defining feature – they’ve got that carbonized, burnt-wood look.

Inside, you’ll also find perithecia – tiny dot-like pores that release blackish-brown ascospores. If you’re not careful, they’ll leave the whole area looking like a chimney sweep’s workshop! 🧹🖤

🔬 Microscopic Marvels

• Spores: 12–18 × 6–8 μm, ellipsoid, flattened on one side, with a long, thin germ slit

• Asci: Eight-spored, often fragmentary, up to 180 × 12 μm

• Spore color: Very dark brown in KOH, turning black-brown en masse

• Perispore: Brownish to hyaline, sometimes loosening

And here’s a cool chemistry trick: crush the outer crust in potassium hydroxide (KOH) and it releases brown to reddish-brown pigments. This is one way to tell childiae apart from D. concentrica, which releases purple pigments instead 🧪🎨.

🧠 Fun & Folklore

💥 Crampball Myth: Old-timey folklore claimed that keeping one of these under your arm could prevent cramps. The idea may sound wacky, but hey – we’ve all tried stranger things, right?

🔥 Fire Starter: The carbonized flesh of Daldinia childiae ignites easily and was once used as tinder. It burns like charcoal, making it a reliable backwoods companion.

🌿 Medicinal & Ethnobotanical Use

Daldinia childiae has caught the eye of naturopaths and traditional healers:

• In traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, it’s viewed as a medicinal mushroom.

• In parts of Africa, it's been used as a folk remedy for intestinal issues.

While it’s not a culinary delight (no real flavor or aroma), this tough little fungus has its niche in natural health and survival lore.

👀 Look-Alikes

Don’t confuse this coal ball with other dark fungi like:

• Alder coal fungus

• Beech ball fungus

• Shiny black bristle fungus

• Scorched crust fungus
  ...and a few other “ashy imposters.” It’s those signature concentric rings and KOH reaction that help ID childiae with confidence 🧐.

📜 Synonyms

1. Daldinia concentrica f. intermedia Lloyd (1919), Mycological writings, 5, the large Pyrenomycetes, p. 25

2. Daldinia concentrica f. confluens Lloyd (1919), Mycological writings, 5, the large Pyrenomycetes, p. 25

3. Daldinia concentrica var. minuta Waraitch (1978) [1977], Indian journal of mycology and plant pathology, 7(1), p. 16

📸 In Summary

Daldinia childiae is one of the cooler characters of the fungal world – tough, dark, mysterious, and surprisingly useful. Whether you're a mycologist, survivalist, or just love weird woodland finds, this little mushroom is a real fireball in disguise

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Sus scrofa (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Atsushi Nakajima (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Atsushi Nakajima (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Bill Volckmann (CC BY 4.0)