The biggest conk i ever did see!

[One Buck]

That is an A3 weather writer for scale ..

[Gray git]

Oooo that's a bigun for sure

 

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[David Humphries]

Looks like the fruiting is all around the trunk. Was the canopy in decline?

 

What did you prescribe?

 

 

 

.

[One Buck]

Looks like the fruiting is all around the trunk. Was the canopy in decline?

 

What did you prescribe?

 

 

 

.

 

Hello David.

 

I am going back for a better look today, I was only being shown around yesterday.

There is no die back is the crown, though it was perhaps a little more sparse than might be expected.

Yes, there are further fruiting bodies.

There is also another simultaneous fungal infection present that I was not able to identify (annual and past its best) . I will try and get some better photographs today and put them on your 'dual decay' thread.

A quick tap with the sounding hammer suggested that basal decay might be quite advanced.

Its quite a prominent tree in a formal landscape, close to a stately home (with the house within falling distance) .. I think that the estate might be rather 'agricultural' in their attitude to retention and the management of decline.

Also I am not sure that retrenchment or 'monolithing' would be acceptable aesthetically here.

I will recommend 'further investigations' and see what they say, but I think that ultimately it will be a fell.

 

What are your thoughts?

Edited February 21, 2017 by One Buck

[Daniël Bos]

Is there a "veteran Fungi register"?

Would such a specimen warrant a tpo, or some fungus preservation order on that basis?

[David Humphries]

Hello David.

 

I am going back for a better look today, I was only being shown around yesterday.

There is no die back is the crown, though it was perhaps a little more sparse than might be expected.

Yes, there are further fruiting bodies.

There is also another simultaneous fungal infection present that I was not able to identify (annual and past its best) . I will try and get some better photographs today and put them on your 'dual decay' thread.

A quick tap with the sounding hammer suggested that basal decay might be quite advanced.

Its quite a prominent tree in a formal landscape, close to a stately home (with the house within falling distance) .. I think that the estate might be rather 'agricultural' in their attitude to retention and the management of decline.

Also I am not sure that retrenchment or 'monolithing' would be acceptable aesthetically here.

I will recommend 'further investigations' and see what they say, but I think that ultimately it will be a fell.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Interested in seeing the other fungal species, if you do get the chance.

 

Psuedoinonotus dryadeus is normally thought of as a heartwood white rot decayer leading to pronounced buttress formation, which can result in a wider more stable base. Though it has been noted in sapwood regions in advanced colonisations, so 'further investigation' using something like a decay detection drill would paint a clearer picture as to strength of the trees 'feet'

 

Why do you say/think the aesthetics of a phased retrenchment/reduction (to help with the stability of the tree) would not be acceptable to the site?

 

.

[David Humphries]

Is there a "veteran Fungi register"?

Would such a specimen warrant a tpo, or some fungus preservation order on that basis?

 

Not that I'm aware of.

 

There are individual records of 'some' of the largest, oldest and heaviest specimens of perennial and annual fungal fruit bodies but not a definitive list.

 

Under Schedule 8 the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 there are currently only 4 species of fungi in the UK protected by law.

 

Oak polypore, bearded tooth, sandy stilt puff ball and the Royal bolete.

 

 

.

[Daniël Bos]

Not that I'm aware of.

 

There are individual records of 'some' of the largest, oldest and heaviest specimens of perennial and annual fungal fruit bodies but not a definitive list.

 

Under Schedule 8 the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 there are currently only 4 species of fungi in the UK protected by law.

 

Oak polypore, bearded tooth, sandy stilt puff ball and the Royal bolete.

 

 

.

Shame, she's a right beauty!

Would be a waste to loose, must be a champion of sorts.

[Shane]

Why not cut it off and have it mounted on the wall.

Better than moose antlers any day.

[One Buck]

Interested in seeing the other fungal species, if you do get the chance.

 

Psuedoinonotus dryadeus is normally thought of as a heartwood white rot decayer leading to pronounced buttress formation, which can result in a wider more stable base. Though it has been noted in sapwood regions in advanced colonisations, so 'further investigation' using something like a decay detection drill would paint a clearer picture as to strength of the trees 'feet'

 

Why do you say/think the aesthetics of a phased retrenchment/reduction (to help with the stability of the tree) would not be acceptable to the site?

 

.

 

Got back to this today.

 

These pics are of some further, but pretty unidentifiable fruiting bodies, of what I am pretty sure are bracket fungus (not honey fungus).

 

I am assuming that these are not further fruiting bodies of Psuedoinonotus dryadeus, both because of what is left of their shape, and because if they were I would expect them to be in a similar part of their cycle to the other fruiting bodies of that species?

 

My thoughts were Fistulina hepatica, mainly because of their(admittedly decayed) shape.

 

You can see that above these that further brackets may have been removed.

 

Also visible on the photographs are what appear to be honey fungus rhizomorphs. These were throughout the area of the fruiting bodies, and also in contact with the fruiting bodies.

 

Is it likely that the base of this tree is simultaneously hosting three species of parasitic fungus?

 

Interested in your thoughts David.

 

Thanks.