King Alfred's cakes or Dead man's fingers
King Alfred's cakes and Dead man's fingers are similar species that can be mixed up while foraging. The main visible difference: stem: King Alfred's cakes — absent, Dead man's fingers — central. The mushrooms also differ in the following features: cap shape.
Not sure? Identify by photoSide by side
| Characteristic | King Alfred's cakes | Dead man's fingers |
|---|---|---|
| Cap colour | King Alfred's cakes: Black, Dark brown, Brown | Dead man's fingers: Black, Grey, Dark brown |
| Cap shape | King Alfred's cakes: Convex | Dead man's fingers: Cylindrical, Irregular |
| Cap surface | King Alfred's cakes: Smooth, Cracked | Dead man's fingers: Dry, Cracked |
| Smell | King Alfred's cakes: — | Dead man's fingers: Odourless |
| Stem | King Alfred's cakes: Absent | Dead man's fingers: Central |
| Partner trees | King Alfred's cakes: Ash, Beech, Alder, Birch | Dead man's fingers: Beech, Oak |
| Growth habit | King Alfred's cakes: In groups, Solitary | Dead man's fingers: In clusters from one base, In groups |
Same in both: edibility class, season, use, size, flesh colour change, substrate, nutrition type.
When and where they meet
Together: January–December
Their seasons overlap: January–December. At that time you can find both in the same woods. Shared habitats: deciduous forest, mixed forest.
What they look like
Cap, Hymenophore, Stem, Flesh, Smell
Cap
King Alfred's cakes
The fruit body, called a stroma, is hemispherical or cushion-shaped, 2 to 8 cm across, and attached firmly to the wood by a broad base, with no stem. Several often fuse into a larger mass.
Young stromata are reddish brown to chestnut, at first dusted with pale asexual spores. Mature ones are black, matt at first and later almost varnished and slightly shiny. The surface is smooth or finely cracked into a network, and under a hand lens you can see tiny bumps where the spore chambers open.
Dead man's fingers
There's no cap. The fruit body is shaped like a finger, club, spindle or tuber, often flattened, lobed, bent or fused, 3 to 8 cm tall, occasionally 10 cm, and 1 to 3 cm thick, with a rounded tip. It grows in tufts of three to six.
Young ones are greyish or pale brown, dusted with a pale powder of asexual spores, often with a paler tip. Mature ones are dark brown to black, dry and finely granular or wrinkled from the spore flasks under the surface.
Hymenophore
King Alfred's cakes
There are no gills or pores. The spores ripen in tiny chambers just below the surface and are shot out, leaving a black deposit on the wood up to about 3 cm around the ball.
Cut one open to see the key feature: alternating dark brown and silver-grey concentric bands beneath a thin black outer layer. The spore print is black.
Dead man's fingers
There are no gills or pores. The spores ripen in tiny flasks (perithecia) sunk under the black crust, each opening by a tiny pore. When cut, they show as a row of black dots.
The spore print is black.
Stem
King Alfred's cakes
There's no stem. The stroma sits directly on the wood on a broad base.
Dead man's fingers
There's no true stem: the finger narrows below into a short, black, finely downy base attached to wood, which is often buried in the soil.
Flesh
King Alfred's cakes
Inside it's dense and fibrous to woody, with concentric bands. Old stromata become light, brittle and charcoal-like.
Dead man's fingers
The flesh is snow-white, hard and fibrous, under a thin black crust, with a row of black dots just beneath the crust.
Smell
King Alfred's cakes
The smell isn't distinctive and doesn't help with identification.
Dead man's fingers
There's no distinctive smell.
Related comparisons
Sources · 28
- [1]GBIF
- [2]Species Fungorum
- [3]Wikipedia (English)
- [4]Вікіпедія (українська)
- [5]Википедия (русская)
- [6]Stadler M. et al. A polyphasic taxonomy of Daldinia (Xylariaceae). Studies in Mycology, 2014, 77: 1–143, Stadler M. et al. (2014)
- [7]Chlebicki A. Revision of the genus Daldinia in the KRAM herbarium collection. Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis Studia Naturae, 2022, 7: 61–73, Chlebicki A. (2022)
- [8]Khalil A.M.A. et al. Daldinia: the nature of its concentric zones. Mycoscience, 2015, 56(5): 542–548, Khalil A.M.A. et al. (2015)
- [9]Berihuete-Azorín M. et al. Punk's not dead. Fungi for tinder at the Neolithic site of La Draga. PLOS ONE, 2018, 13(4): e0195846, Berihuete-Azorín M. et al. (2018)
- [10]First Nature: Daldinia concentrica, King Alfred's Cakes
- [11]Woodland Trust: King Alfred's cakes
- [12]Sussex Wildlife Trust: Species of the day, King Alfred's Cakes
- [13]Horniman Museum: cramp charm, Daldinia concentrica on string (object 12.190)
- [14]First Nature: Kretzschmaria deusta, Brittle Cinder
- [15]GBIF: знахідки Daldinia в Україні
- [16]Index Fungorum
- [17]First Nature: Xylaria polymorpha, Dead Man's Fingers
- [18]First Nature: Xylaria longipes
- [19]First Nature: Kretzschmaria deusta
- [20]First Nature: Geoglossum cookeanum
- [21]Wild Food UK: Dead Man's Fingers
- [22]Kuo M., MushroomExpert: Xylaria polymorpha
- [23]Wikipedia (de): Vielgestaltige Holzkeule
- [24]Wikigrib: Ксилярия многообразная
- [25]Atamanchuk A.R., Bisko N.A. Plant & Fungal Research, 2022, 5(2): 11–19 (Xylaria strains from Ukraine), Atamanchuk A.R., Bisko N.A. (2022)
- [26]Debnath S. et al. New distribution record of five species of Xylaria from Tripura, Northeast India. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Life Sciences, 2018, 8(1): 1–10, Debnath S. et al. (2018)
- [27]Tudor D., Robinson S.C., Cooper P.A. AMB Express, 2012, 2: 69 (pigments of Xylaria in spalted wood), Tudor D., Robinson S.C., Cooper P.A. (2012)
- [28]GBIF: знахідки Xylaria polymorpha в Україні