Pine Firefungus

Rhizina undulata

Sandy pine forests, especially burnt areas. Summer, autumn.

Strange, stalkless fruiting bodies, 3-10 (13) cm in size, when young like conical bumps, later spreading out, wavy-knobbly, reddish-brown, brown, chocolate-coloured or even brownish-black. Instead of a stem there are only thickened mycelial cords or rhizoids, penetrating the substrate like roots. Flesh yellowish, without smell or taste. Grows singly and in groups, like a large scab or a melted piece of chocolate, on pine roots (a parasite of pines). Fairly common, edible, but of little value. Very similar are Ustulina vulgaris and Daldinia concentrica, but these fungi grow on stumps, windfalls and branches of deciduous trees and are a charred, hard mass, almost black or violet-black in colour.