Pholiota on ash tree in still in leaf.

[MATTMOSS]

I have noticed this in two separate locations recently, ash trees which have a significant amout of fruiting pholiota squarrosa at the base and the tree is in full leaf looking very healthy and lush, no signs of turning brown or losing leaf and other ash trees in the immediate vicinity with no signs of fungi have really turned.

Is there any link to this or is it just a coincidence?

Ive not done any research just thought id ask the question on here first.

Thanks.

Edited November 20, 2016 by MATTMOSS

[Gary Prentice]

No idea, but I noticed some birch today, bare apart from the very upper reaches of the canopy. This made me think about the auxins to initiate leaf abscission (which I think originate from the roots -probably wrong). So do the distal parts of the canopy get the message later? And could your answer be a disruption/dysfunction of the messaging system caused by decay.

 

Or am I talking a load of bullocks?

[MATTMOSS]

From my vague memory i thought it was the apical meristems thats that controlled the auxins, so they come from the top down.

Cytokinins up from the roots.

Could be wrong, dont care.

Your not answering my question.

[MATTMOSS]

Only joking gary.

As you mention towards the end of your post it could seem logical (to me anyway) that in some instance there could be some disruption or possibly the tree trying to get the most energy it can to combat the decay before winter?..

Possibly.

[Gary Prentice]

Guess we'll have to wait for someone smarter...

[MATTMOSS]

Guess we'll have to wait for someone smarter...

 

I guess you are right.

I have just done some searching in an attempt to anwer my own question and ended up with five new questions.

[Gary Prentice]

Don't read anymore

[Dilz]

pholiota squarrosa is sometimes not very aggressive, I most often see on trees that have exeprienced some sort of root damage but the rest of the tree was healthy - example in summer i crown cleaned a tall robinia, tree was in excellent condition, was on the same site in the autumn, large amount pholiota squarrosa at the base. The tree had suffered root damage due to construction. on the same site a dead cherry had pholiota squarrosa at its base but I doubt that it was the sole cause of the trees decline...but any way i digress... to the question in hand - it could just be coincidence - the thing to do would be to monitor the tree next year and see when it comes into leaf and when it sheds them. Even then there could be a number of factors such as south facing aspect, available water, wind exposure, genetics etc....though one area i'm willing to speculate is that - could there be potential for the fungus to encourage the tree to remain in leaf longer so as to make more carbohydrates available to the fungus....or is it the trees response to being attacked by the fungus, the tree itself responding to a need to bolster its defenses and that this will require more energy??? there are things we know that we dont know and things we dont know that we dont know etc etc. so the short is i havent a clue.