Sorry to drag up this ancient observation, but an acquaintance has just found something similar in the Bay Area (which I'll post later if I get his permission), and I discovered that I can't find any mention of non-black (or at least non-dark-brown) Daldinia species, and there's only a single observation of this genus on MO. Does anyone know how to treat a "carbon ball" of this color? These balls were on a fallen oak in the Appalachians, up to 2 cm. Perithecia somewhere around 0.1 to 0.2 mm, filled with black goo. The spores were around 8x3 um with a conspicuous (and handsome) oil drop in one end. The conidia (if that's what the pruina covering the ball really is) were minute, hyaline dots (less than 1 um).