November 2011

After the success of The Great British Bake Off competition, recently shown on television and the resulting upsurge in home baking, it may come as a surprise to learn that our local woods are full of cakes, King Alfred's Cakes (Daldinia concentrica) to be precise. But then they are not cakes but a type of fungus generally found growing on the dead trunks and branches of trees such as ash, oak and chestnut. They are so called because they are about the size of small scones and reddish brown in colour when they are young and, as they age, they darken to black and look as though, like King Alfred's, they have been burnt. When cut in half the reason for the Latin name is exposed because there are a series of concentric, pale silver coloured growth rings, which are the remains of reproductive cells, one ring for each season so that by the time they are between 7 – 8cms across they will be about 12 to 15 years old. Apart from the reference to King Alfred the fungus also has other localised names such as coal cakes and cramp balls - the latter is supposed to relate to the belief that if carried in trouser pockets they would prevent leg cramps. The fungus was traditionally used as tinder for fire lighting because, when dry, a spark from two flints can ignite it to produce a persistent glow which can then be used to light very dry grass or pine needles. Proof that the fungus has been used for this purpose since prehistoric times came to light in 1903 when the 9,000 year old, fossilised remains of a human, living in the mesolithic period just at the end of the last Ice Age, were found in Gough's cave in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset – Cheddar Man was carrying his version of Swan Vestas - a pair of Daldinia concentrica.

The first half of October gave us all a pleasant surprise with plenty of sunshine and higher than average temperatures – a mini Indian summer. These warm periods have encouraged some plants to produce unseasonal flowers which in itself is not that uncommon however, some plants seem to be completely fooled such as the shrub Viburnum mariesi at Wakehurst Gardens which was in full flower for the second time this year in early October, albeit the flowers were smaller than on the first occasion earlier in the year. Another surprise was in store on this visit to Wakehurst when later in the afternoon the distant, muffled roars of deer stags rutting could be heard echoing across the woodland. However, by the third week of October the night temperatures began to plummet and on the mornings of 19^th and 20^th we awoke to a ground frost: daytime temperatures were in the upper teens but as soon as the sun set and with cloudless skies the temperatures quickly dropped to 4ºC. This colder weather will now trigger a change in the chemical composition in the leaves of trees and shrubs and within a couple of weeks the great firework display of autumn colours will be around us before nature quietly slips into winter.

Mike Johnson