Fungi advice needed please

[Treeinapot]

I've got a 40 yr old horse chestnut tree in a pot but it has this hard fungus growing on it. Google has identified it as Daldinia Concentrica, commonly known as King Alfred's cakes. Can anyone please confirm that this is correct identification and if the tree will survive ? Should I accept it's reached the end of the road? It's only about 4ft high and is generally a bit sad but it was grown from a conker & I'm quite fond of it.

The answer is, I don’t know! Trees are used to a fungal load, and the structural strength lies in the outer cylinder, even if the centre is rotted away

Thanks for your reply, I know your advice is sound & well researched. It sounds like it might survive a bit longer so I'll give it another year & see what happens. I'd be sad to give up on it prematurely.

That type of fungus is not harmful to living tree tissue, but grows on already dead and decaying wood. Horse chestnuts are one of the trees which can survive for a century or more with a hollowed-out interior, so it could be that your tree has many years of life in it yet. It probably suffered in the heat last summer and also in the very cold winter that followed, which may have caused part of it to kick the bucket. All trees have a relationship with fungi of one sort or another, usually beneficial to both. Hang in there, and wait and see.

Thank you Yamadori, that's cheered me up. It may outlast me.