Kingdom Fungi > Division Ascomycota > Class Sordariomycetes > Order Xylariales > Family Diatrypaceae.
The family has around 230 species in 13 genera.
Diatrype has 59 species and Diatrypella has 33 all very common.
Fruit-bodies are black or black-brown and from 1 mm up to extensive sheets.
They may be isolated disc-like areas or coalesce to form irregular shapes.
Some are thin crusts, others form elevated masses.
The surface may have tiny bumps caused by the perithecal openings.
In some the surface appears smooth but under magnification the ostioles are visible.
The peritheca are usually erupting through the wood.
The more extensive ones can look like burned wood and a common name for them is tarcrust.
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Daldinia concentrica.
Ascomycota > Pezizomycotina > Xylariales > Xylariaceae.
Daldinia concentrica is also known as Coal Balls.
It is one of the larger and better known Daldinia species
There are other species with a similar appearance.
The fruiting body, up to 8 cm across is hemispherical with a broad base.
A number can fuse forming irregular shapes.
It lives on dead and decaying wood.
Young fruiting bodies are a pinkish-brown and firm.
Mature fruiting bodies are shiny, black, hard and brittle as they dry out.
The flesh is silvery-black and a cross section shows concentric layers.
Each layer represents a season of reproduction.
The black spores are produced in the asci which line the walls of the peritheca.
The peritheca are initially spherical but when the spores inside are mature they lengthen.
The top, with the pore or ostiole forms a small bump on the surface and the spores are expelled.
The peritheca are 0.5 to 0.8 mm in diameter.
J.F.
