Hamadryads big phat fungi thread!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I see you've listed the ganoderma as australe. Has the name changed to australe again or is it still adspersum. I thought it had beed australe before it was adspersum.

 

read a couple of pages back gibbon!

 

this will be the third mention! Australe is new for Adspersum.

[gibbon]

I thought that was the case a couple of years back. I mentioned it on the PTI course and no one else new a thing about it. The guy doing the course told me that australe was the name before it had been changed to adspersum some 40 od years ago. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

You seem to know your mould there Hama. Good little resource

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I thought that was the case a couple of years back. I mentioned it on the PTI course and no one else new a thing about it. The guy doing the course told me that australe was the name before it had been changed to adspersum some 40 od years ago. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

You seem to know your mould there Hama. Good little resource

 

It wont be long before I am putting up picks from a microscope too! and increment cores etc, will be really usefull to all i hope.

 

and thanks!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Fabulous photos a great thread really enjoying the views...

 

Interestingly there is a substantial arguement for the use of Sparasis crispa as an effective competitor for Armillaria species and Heterobasidon annosum (Stamets ~ Mycoforestry)

 

considering the damage done by Sparasis crispa and the hetero and mellea using one to fend of the others would be perpetuating the issues! sparasis crispa is a brown brittle rot that can extend from the roots to 3 mtrs up the stem. There are better "dryads" to seek out, in time i will be up there with these guys doing this research, and I cant wait to get my scopes!

[sean freeman]

I suspect you will find as a great many others have done that the modes action adopted by a particular fungi can be significantly influenced by the local conditions.

 

Stamets work relating to the effective use of species such as sparassis was in the NW USA where it was observed as a saprophyte, along withTrametes and Ganoderma.

 

Personally I think Stamets is right from what I can observe here in Oz it is more accurate to use terms such as facultative parasites (where the shoe fits!), it is also critical to recognise that it is possible to describe primary, secondary and tertiary decomposers within saprophytic fungi, although of course species can and will cross these intellectual categories depending on circumstances.

 

Mycologists like Stamets base their opinions on theirs and others fieldwork, but are only too aware that their conclusions are neither universal nor set in stone...

 

"Some mycologists believe that the cauliflower mushrooms (Sparassis crispa) is a root parasite that like Armillaria can grow saprophytically after the tree dies. However, I have yet to see a forest blighted by cauliflower mushrooms, whereas I have seen thousands of acres of forests in Washington, Oregon, and Colerado that were killed by Armillaria fungi. I have found cauliflowers only at the base of very large trees or stumps, so (it is his opinion) if it is a root parasite, the cauliflower does not seem to become destructive until their aged hosts are already in decline" [stamets 'Mycelium running pp47-48]

 

His lab work supports the blight blocking scenario with the production of the antifungal antibiotic agents that permit cauliflowers to parasitize Armillaria.

 

This is a potential control option that in principle could be effective and one that certainly will need substantial trials to be able to convince any forester to even consider trying it.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I suspect you will find as a great many others have done that the modes action adopted by a particular fungi can be significantly influenced by the local conditions.

 

Stamets work relating to the effective use of species such as sparassis was in the NW USA where it was observed as a saprophyte, along withTrametes and Ganoderma.

 

Personally I think Stamets is right from what I can observe here in Oz it is more accurate to use terms such as facultative parasites (where the shoe fits!), it is also critical to recognise that it is possible to describe primary, secondary and tertiary decomposers within saprophytic fungi, although of course species can and will cross these intellectual categories depending on circumstances.

 

Mycologists like Stamets base their opinions on theirs and others fieldwork, but are only too aware that their conclusions are neither universal nor set in stone...

 

"Some mycologists believe that the cauliflower mushrooms (Sparassis crispa) is a root parasite that like Armillaria can grow saprophytically after the tree dies. However, I have yet to see a forest blighted by cauliflower mushrooms, whereas I have seen thousands of acres of forests in Washington, Oregon, and Colerado that were killed by Armillaria fungi. I have found cauliflowers only at the base of very large trees or stumps, so (it is his opinion) if it is a root parasite, the cauliflower does not seem to become destructive until their aged hosts are already in decline" [stamets 'Mycelium running pp47-48]

 

His lab work supports the blight blocking scenario with the production of the antifungal antibiotic agents that permit cauliflowers to parasitize Armillaria.

 

This is a potential control option that in principle could be effective and one that certainly will need substantial trials to be able to convince any forester to even consider trying it.

 

Thanks for that, it is interesting how differing local circumstances can change the "habit" of certain organisms. I know a stand of not so old douglas firs in the southeast of england that are being chewed up by Sparasis crispa!

 

And know full well of the dessimation heterobassidion annosum can do in the pressence of forest root grafts and stump fodder avaliability.

 

This area of research is something i aspire to, im waiting for a chance to buy some scopes from brunel and a D5 camera to go with them. I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to fungi!

[combined tree services]

Thanks for that, it is interesting how differing local circumstances can change the "habit" of certain organisms. I know a stand of not so old douglas firs in the southeast of england that are being chewed up by Sparasis crispa!

 

And know full well of the dessimation heterobassidion annosum can do in the pressence of forest root grafts and stump fodder avaliability.

 

This area of research is something i aspire to, im waiting for a chance to buy some scopes from brunel and a D5 camera to go with them. I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to fungi!

 

last summer i was called in to take down one of the countries orrigional Pinus Radiata , the decision was made to take the tree down because of a v large limb that had failed and a QTRA assessment that was carried out by the county TO , it became apparent that the tree had been suffering form sparissis crispa for the last 17 years that he knew of (this was known by him because when he moved to the job 17 years previously as a welcome gift the staff left the FFB in his bed) the tree was a good 15 meters taller than any tree arround which made it rather vunerable to southeasterly and southwesterly gales that are rather dammaging but still it had not failed .

[dangerous brian]

It failed big style when we got at it .

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

A tree of that size could happily house a heart rotting fungi for decades, even a hundred years, so no suprize it fruited for that period of time. I would like to know just how decayed it was! you never said?

 

exposed to high winds would mean it was constantly laying a good rootflare and would have had good residual wall thickness due to that.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Exidia glandulosa

The stump puff ball

hericium coralloides (im so happy!)

Pholiota aurivella