Wooden pot

This lovely little pot (less than 4 inches high) was a Christmas present. I love the colours, patterns and feel of wood. The label on this describes it as 'Spalted Beech'. I did not know what spalted means. I looked it up in my online dictionary - not in there, so I Googled it. The website from finewoodworking.com explained that spalting is the effect caused by fungi making dark lines within the wood. Previously seen as a defect it is now used to advantage in decorative pieces and is in fact sometimes produced deliberately by storing the cut wood and fungi together.