todays fungi piccies

[armchairarborist]

yes... at last somebody tripped hama, its actually an expandicus fome:001_tongue: heres a clearer shot, wot? he said maybe? ah nuts..

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

yes... at last somebody tripped hama, its actually an expandicus fome:001_tongue: heres a clearer shot, wot? he said maybe? ah nuts..

 

A ha.... so this is the game now is it!

 

Trying to trip up the hama indeedy!

 

This trick works better when getting more "artistic" and simulating a laeti bracket! do it high on a stem so close inspection is not possible and watch the keenies tell all what it is!

[armchairarborist]

no tricks this time i promise.. armillaria mellea,and erm well.. ok i dont know

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

A pure guess but on chestnut and in recent high temps these may well be dessicated under formed and slug eaten Pluerotus ostreatus, but pure guess and evaluation.

[David Humphries]

no tricks this time i promise.. armillaria mellea,and erm well.. ok i dont know

 

 

 

Out of interest Armchair, why do you positively Id the Armillaria as mellea.

 

Did you see the Mushrooms last year?

 

 

 

 

Not being funny, just interested?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Out of interest Armchair, why do you positively Id the Armillaria as mellea.

 

Did you see the Mushrooms last year?

 

 

 

 

Not being funny, just interested?

 

.

 

Thats a good point that I missed there!

 

maybe he assumes mellea is the only Honey variety?

[armchairarborist]

nope didnt see the mushrooms last year, looked for them though. this was on a maple that got the chop lastyear within 10metres of todays pic, I id'd it as mellea based purely on what i thought at the time and 3 other arbs (all i would say are better at naming fungs than me) agreed with me.. if im wrong then thats something i need to polish up on, if you think im wrong feel free to comment, i'll get more pics tomorrow if that would help

[David Humphries]

I don't believe either Tony or I are questioning your specific Id, it's just that there are at least 7 species of Armillaria in the Uk.

 

A. borealis

A. cepistipes

A. ectypa (?)

A. gallica

A. mellea sensu stricto

A. ostoyae

A. tabescens

 

These range massively in pathnogenicy.

 

mellea & ostoyae are the most agressive, where as gallica & cepistipes are noted as being almost benign.

They all tend to have quite noticably different rhizomorph sizes.

 

 

So I think all we're saying is be careful not to box the obvious signs into one generic species.

 

 

.

[armchairarborist]

ok i'll try to look them all up and find the differences, haha so much to learn..

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

ok i'll try to look them all up and find the differences, haha so much to learn..

 

Remember I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination! I along with everyone else here am on a steep learning curve:biggrin:

 

It is a life long proscess, an observation here, and an observation there, over time it builds, its very interesting, a bit like being a criminal detective, trying to build a picture of the crime scene, motives and weapons!

 

But its not all about death and decay, fungi are the fuel, or the engine that drives the system and being aware of the mycelial world opens up a whole new experience to life in the forest.

 

When we consider that Fungi allied with algea (probably and most likely) first colonised our baron planet its not hard to imagine that from then on all life evolved a connection with this origional association, diversifying into the complex system we see today.

 

I think it is more than fair to say that fungi are the key to life as we know it, the root of it, the driving force.