August 2017 — Alfred the Great, Daldinia Concentrica, and Montbretia

The other day a dog-walker returning from a stroll in local woodland produced an unfamiliar object and asked if I knew what it was. The item resembled a small burnt bun, black and perhaps an inch and a half in diameter. A quick look at the Green Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools identified a fungus occurring on dead or dying ash trees and commonly called Cramp Balls (said to cure cramp) or more imaginatively, King Alfred’s Cakes. The latter name rang a distant, muffled bell. Wasn’t there a former king of England who would not have stood a chance in front of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood? An internet search filled in the gaps.

     Alfred the Great was a wise and progressive king who came under attack by the hostile, murdering Danes at Chippenham in 878. He escaped to the Somerset marches where he was able to organise an effective resistance movement. Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who lift him to watch some cakes cooking on her fire. Despite bearing Kingly status, he was not gifted at this and allowed them to burn, himself receiving a roasting from his hostess. The fungus is hard and inedible, but greatly prized as tinder by those versed in bushcraft. The scientific name is Daldinia Concentrica and YouTubevideos show the concentric rings of a cut surface being ignited by the use of flint and steel.

Daldinia concentrica

     Roebuck Lane offers sweeping views across Strinesdale and the coarse grasses of the verge are currently enlivened by flashes of brilliant red. Pennant-shaped clusters of tomato-red flowers, flying here on sturdy 3-foot stems, belong to the garden plant Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, which is creeping by human agency into wild areas around the borough. Like the related, orange-flowered Montbretia, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ has its origins in South Africa. The plant was first introduced for sale during the 1960s by Alan Bloom the famous Norfolk nursery man, who by dint of great skill crossed a tender colourful species with a hardy Crocosmia. The resulting desirable perennial is now widely grown, the corns spreading strongly to form a large colony within a few years.

Montbretia

     The old orange Montbretia is now classified as an invasive alien, but it is very possible that ‘Lucifer’ will be included in wild flower lists before long. From a new garden plant to a wild flower in fifty years.