Lynne Boddy on Fungi.

[MATTMOSS]

Lynne Boddy talking about fungi commnities on the radio- the life scientific.

She makes some interesting points.

She starts about 3 mins in.

 

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Lynne Boddy on Fungi

[openspaceman]

Hi

 

Listened to it last night on Iplayer. Just what you'd expect from Lynne; interesting, informative, enthusiastic, thought provoking. The thought provoking bit being the most important.

 

Ed

 

It was a bit more than thought provoking for me, I haven't kept touch with this arb science but was gobsmacked with the idea that progenitors of fungal bodies were already in the healthy tissue waiting to grow once the branch came under drought stress.

[Kveldssanger]

It was a bit more than thought provoking for me, I haven't kept touch with this arb science but was gobsmacked with the idea that progenitors of fungal bodies were already in the healthy tissue waiting to grow once the branch came under drought stress.

 

Cool 'aint it. If you ever want to get a good 101 on fungi, pick up the New Naturalist edition called 'Fungi' by Spooner & Roberts. Awesome read!

[Kveldssanger]

Another cool one - BBC Radio 4 - The Living World, In Search of Giant Fungus

[openspaceman]

Cool 'aint it. If you ever want to get a good 101 on fungi, pick up the New Naturalist edition called 'Fungi' by Spooner & Roberts. Awesome read!

 

I'll have to search for that, I thought I'd have much more time on my hands for such things but my DIY plumbing has escalated from changing a tap to having to replace the whole basin due to my hamfistedness.

 

What I should like to clarify is that Lynne Boddy was referring to saprophytic fungi sitting dormant in healthy tissue and waiting for the parent trees efforts to discard a branch after abscission causes the loss of water, rather than a response to drought as I implied.

[MATTMOSS]

I'll have to search for that, I thought I'd have much more time on my hands for such things but my DIY plumbing has escalated from changing a tap to having to replace the whole basin due to my hamfistedness.

 

What I should like to clarify is that Lynne Boddy was referring to saprophytic fungi sitting dormant in healthy tissue and waiting for the parent trees efforts to discard a branch after abscission causes the loss of water, rather than a response to drought as I implied.

 

I might be wrong but i didnt recall her mention saprophotic fungi although it would also apply.

I just interpreted it as latent fungi waiting for an opportunity to become active.

This could be the tree lowering its defences due to stress/damage - not necessarily just decaying dead wood.

[MATTMOSS]

Tree lowering its defences- maybe not the best explanation, but hopefully you understand what im trying to say

[Kveldssanger]

I'll have to search for that, I thought I'd have much more time on my hands for such things but my DIY plumbing has escalated from changing a tap to having to replace the whole basin due to my hamfistedness.

 

What I should like to clarify is that Lynne Boddy was referring to saprophytic fungi sitting dormant in healthy tissue and waiting for the parent trees efforts to discard a branch after abscission causes the loss of water, rather than a response to drought as I implied.

 

I would say she means both. For example, one could look at the birch polypore being latently present and beginning its attack once the host birch tree is under physiological stress, or conversely fungi such as Bulgaria inquinans that are latently present in the sapwood of oak and - following either entire failure or the death of a branch - readily colonises in potentially massive proportions.

[openspaceman]

I might be wrong but i didnt recall her mention saprophotic fungi although it would also apply.

I just interpreted it as latent fungi waiting for an opportunity to become active.

This could be the tree lowering its defences due to stress/damage - not necessarily just decaying dead wood.

 

My post was my inference (and she didn't mention saprophytic) as she was initially talking about the necessity for fungi to decompose dead wood on the forest floor, I'm open to further enlightenment. I took the view that pathogenic fungi would have evolved to get in through defences and attack the tree rather than sit and wait for the tree to discard a branch?? The trigger for their activity being the lessening of water content.

[Kveldssanger]

My post was my inference (and she didn't mention saprophytic) as she was initially talking about the necessity for fungi to decompose dead wood on the forest floor, I'm open to further enlightenment. I took the view that pathogenic fungi would have evolved to get in through defences and attack the tree rather than sit and wait for the tree to discard a branch?? The trigger for their activity being the lessening of water content.

 

If we're talking about pathogenic fungi then - by virtue of the definition - they'd attack a living host (though they can of course also - but not in ever case - attack dead hosts, or dead parts of a living host). Therefore, pathogenic fungi have indeed adapted to 'get through' the defence mechanisms employed by the host tree.

 

As a sort of side, the term 'pathogenic' is a little difficult when one looks at fungi such as the beefsteak (Fistulina hepatica), because it's not technically ever attacking a living (as in functional in the vascular sense) part of the host tree (that may well be living). It's a heartwood specialist, and thus degrades only the wood no longer serving any (or very little) conductive purpose. Conversely, Armillaria mellea is indeed pathogenic, in the true sense of the word. Granted, it can - and often is - a saprophyte, too.

 

I guess the key here is that the parasite-saprophyte continuum is incredibly fluid in the fungal world, and slotting different fungi into certain areas of the continuum can be very tricky, if not down-right impossible; at least, when we assess the wood-rotters. Phylloplane fungi and mycorrhizal fungi are entirely different kettles of fish, and we aren't even then delving into grassland or freshwater species...