King Alfred's Cakes

[Mack13]

Hi all, walking through local woods we came across this log with King Alfred's Cakes growing on it. We weren't sure what the other pinkish ones were but guessed they were possibly immature King Alfred's Cakes as they were same shape, as solid as the King Alfred's, and had black areas on them.
Are we right or are these something different?

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f39/Mack13isunavailable/P1000322_zps2abe3165.jpg

Cheers
Mack13

 

[Harvestman]

You are right. When immature they are pinkish-purple. They can still be used as they dry perfectly well, but I prefer to leave them so that there will be more in future.

 

[cranmere]

Another vote for you being correct, that's a nice example of mature and immature fruiting bodies.

I haven't found any this year in the places I would expect to see them.

 

[Mack13]

Thanks for the replies.. We left them where they were and took pictures only. The area where we found these was abundantly covered with them. I may return next year for a couple to add to my firelighting kit.

 

[cranmere]

Removing fully mature fruiting bodies isn't a problem since they have already spread their spores.