The Meripilus thread!

[Matthew Corran]

A shot of the advanced decay in the roots, there was nothing holding it up yet crown looked fine!

[sloth]

M giganteus here living up to its name. I've seen more of it this year than the last 2 or 3 combined!

This is Oak Tree Corner, I never knew the original tree or when/why it was felled, the tree you see is a replacement which has been present for at least 5 years. In those five years of very regular passing I've never seen Meripilus fruiting here before.

I seem to remember from Gerritt's posts that Meripilus needs live wood to fruit. If that is the case, and assuming I've not just missed past fruiting, is it possible the fungi has been happily digesting a dead stump and now has access to the live roots of the replacement; enabling fruiting? Just a thought.

On another note I saw today a roadside beech stump which was felled by my old company 3 or 4 years ago as it had die back. At the time there were no fruit bodies of anything, today it was rife with merip, 1/3 of its circumference covered in kretz and a few ganos between the buttresses: a timely fell I reckon!

[Al Cormack]

I have a client who lives by a communal garden in Dulwich and 4 years ago he asked me to look at a beech tree with fungi growing around the base. It was meripulus and the tree was removed by another company.

 

He has emailed some photos today showing the merip fruiting bodies appearing, not sure if the stump was removed or not, but how long can merit live off the roots? he is concerned the newly planted tree could be under threat (not sure what species at the moment). Coukld this be the case?

 

Cheers...Al

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I have a client who lives by a communal garden in Dulwich and 4 years ago he asked me to look at a beech tree with fungi growing around the base. It was meripulus and the tree was removed by another company.

 

He has emailed some photos today showing the merip fruiting bodies appearing, not sure if the stump was removed or not, but how long can merit live off the roots? he is concerned the newly planted tree could be under threat (not sure what species at the moment). Coukld this be the case?

 

Cheers...Al

 

if you look back in this thread Ben Ballard talks of burried beech stumps fruiting heavy for upto 8 years, suggesting a very capable saprotroph.

 

I would not want to replant a site with prone species, especialy Beech.

[Al Cormack]

Thanks Tony👍

I did read most of the thread, must have missed that bit.

Cheers

Al

[sloth]

I thought I recalled Gerritt saying that Merip needed live roots to fruit. If this is the case and I, like others, have seen it fruiting on long dead stumps, could this be further evidence/suggestion of the 'two types of Merip' theory?

Maybe I'm just remembering wrong anyway, but if not does anybody know where there 'live roots necessary' info came from, or was it simply Gerritt's experience?

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I thought I recalled Gerritt saying that Merip needed live roots to fruit. If this is the case and I, like others, have seen it fruiting on long dead stumps, could this be further evidence/suggestion of the 'two types of Merip' theory?

Maybe I'm just remembering wrong anyway, but if not does anybody know where there 'live roots necessary' info came from, or was it simply Gerritt's experience?

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Arbtalk mobile app

 

I think your not far off the mark, certainly in my experience there is anecdotal evidence to suggest maybe genotypes having one mode or the other. Its like say Amanitas giving up thier saprotrophic capacities to focus on myco only, maybe many species are in transitions. There is a lot of science backing that idea up directly and indirectly, like Stamets finding some forms of Grifola to be impossible to grow on sawdust media while othersflorished.

[Ben Ballard]

Thought I would share this ,I have posted this beech before a few years ago for its abnormal looking gannos and oyster but this year I seen merrip fruiting up the stem on what looks like a old wound or area of dysfunction

Cheers Ben

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

great post ben

[Riggerbear]

I had to clear this last week, almost no roots on the North and Eastern side and just one large root on the south western side that snapped when it went over, so when we had some strong North Easterly's it gave up.

I was surprised really as there was hardly any change in the crown, compared to other trees i know that have had Meripilus for years with a lot of crown dieback and their still standing.