Hamadryads fungus diary

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Im always hoping i will come across something a little different to share with you guys and girls, trying to not be repetative and new is hard to do! I hope this post today gives you a few things to ponder! and if you fancy chewing the fat over it, you know Im all ears!

 

We all know (I hope) that bugs are mostly incapable of digesting wood without special enzymes, many of the wood inhabiting insects rely on mycelium within the wood to do the digesting and act as a supplement to the diets.

 

But, what if the worm turned? what if the fungi became the hunter? maybe this macarb scene is what might occur. This is all speculation at the moment, this i found today and without scopes and specialist training i cant go deeper into this wonderful mystery, so in my limited experience and knowledge this is MY evaluation based on the story unfolding before me as I went all Dr Shigo and dissected this old indica.

 

Firstly the tree, a failure from thursday in those high winds, this poor womans car was trashed on her way home.... by a falling tree, she got away fine, but some damage to the car, onlt to find this on arriving home!

 

As you can see there are three main fungal culprits carving up portions/terretories for themselves. They all know what they are after, what place they fullfil in this scavenging of the carcas of the dead indica. The pluerotus ostreatus, the core, Chondrostereum the cambium and outermost layers of sap wood, and the Flamulina velutipes taking all it can from within and around the two, holding the middle ground between the two for the most part.

 

Now, it gets really interesting on finding the corpses of not one not two but many species of insects within the column occupied by P. ostreatus. I think it is no coincidence, and ostreatus produces a toxin called ostratin, with this toxin it imobolises nematodes to supplement its nitrogen needs in the low nitrogen world of woody tissues.

 

It isnt a giant leap to imagine what has happened here, the fungi is indeed a rather predatory species, and I am quiet certain of the demise of these insects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This world we live in, is full of wonder, I can only hope that the wonders never cease and that I nebver ever in all my days stop finding things to inspire my utter and complete fascination with the natural order of life.

[SJH]

Interesting, bugs look like shothole borer beatle, you may have stumbled on a cure.

[Ben Ballard]

nice one tony your realy opening our minds to whats going on ,valuable knowledge to give us better understanding of the enviroment we are working in:thumbup1:

[chris cnc]

i love this, just goes to show there is so much left for us to learn

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

nice one tony your realy opening our minds to whats going on ,valuable knowledge to give us better understanding of the enviroment we are working in:thumbup1:

 

i love this, just goes to show there is so much left for us to learn

 

If you ever get the oportunity do try longditudenal dissections of trunks and branches, it really does open up a different view of the wood.

 

cords/rings will only show you a fraction of the picture, slicing one up length ways reveals so much, and lucky for me my firm prefers to render most of the rubbish log for chip so it all gets cut up length ways:thumbup:

 

Shigo dissected over 15,000 trees this way throughout his research, it really is a great way to leanr about wood and its defects, growth, etc etc:thumbup1:

[Ben Ballard]

will do i always enjoy what i see inside when milling or ripping a big trunk , i look forward to my next bit of decayed wood and i will take a good look:thumbup1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

will do i always enjoy what i see inside when milling or ripping a big trunk , i look forward to my next bit of decayed wood and i will take a good look:thumbup1:

 

Another one that I never tire of is cutting up (cross sectional) heavy limbs on pines and seeing the darker "wedge" of compression wood surrounded by the lighter less dense tension wood:thumbup:

[Gollum]

May i ask where abouts in Kent

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

May i ask where abouts in Kent

 

its a private estate in Godmersham, contact cutter1 if you want to know more:sneaky2:

 

why you ask?