2 fungi on beech, ID needed...

[stampy]

Due to the rubbish camera on my otherwise lovely iphone, I might have to resort to painting a picture with words....

 

Ok, so I found these two on a large copper beech that is the pride and joy of the owner.

 

Exhibit one - these guys were growing very close to the buttresses - underside is very smooth and doesn't colour when bruised.

 

Exhibit two - reasonable size brackets, emanating from an old pruning wound approx 1.5m up the trunk. I immediately thought Ganoderma (the underside is much lighter than it appears in pics - pretty much white) but the top is black and bubbly.

 

The canopy is full and healthy, no signs of dieback. The tree is leaning slightly towards the house, with the fungus on the tension side of the trunk.

 

Its a lovely specimen, with an awesome gnarly old butt where it was grafted, I'm going back to the site on friday so will try get a photo of that too.

 

Any shedding of light on my deplorable fungi ignorance would be great

[Alinicoll]

First one i would guess is Meripilus. Second one possibly Ganoderma pfeifferi.

 

It probably wants looking at by a consultant.

[David Humphries]

apparantly, i hear this is a relatively useful resource

 

 

Meripilus giganteus - Giant polypore - David Humphries’s Fungi Directory - Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists

 

 

 

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[stampy]

Thanks for your time guys. I did spend quite a while on the Fungi Directory (fantastic resource btw) but I dismissed Merip because the flesh didn't bruise. Maybe I just wasn't punching it hard enough

 

Guess it might be time to find some friendly soul with an airspade...

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

merip and Ganoderma australe is my ten penny worth.

[Lorry thompson]

What would be the best advice for a customer if giant polypore is found at the base of a large beech tree most people I've spoke to is have it out or should we wait and monitor the extent of the decay?

[David Humphries]

I personally believe that far too many beech are felled at the first sight of Merip.

 

I've been managing an isolated hill top Beech with Merip for ten tears, and guess what......it's still there with a flourishing canopy, allthoughit has to be said reduced.

 

Whereas we all see failed root plates with the tell tale fronds on.

 

Also many others are out there happily co-existing together, in a battle of decay & compartmentalisation & adaptive strengthening.

 

Fell is all too often the easy money option.

That generally keeps both contractor & client sleeping comfy at night.

 

 

It's a long & difficult debate.

 

 

 

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[Lorry thompson]

Cheers mate the tree I'm thinking of I noticed in a neighbours garden to the one I'm working in tomorrow only had a quick glimpse tree looked fine but is leaning heavily towards the house. I read somewhere that someone (sorry forgot his name I'm useless) who reckons it doesn't kill the roots it lives off dead roots so something else must be attacking them, if this is the case would more fruiting bodies show more decay because there is quite a few of them around the base of the tree?

[David Humphries]

Lots of brackets can relate to there being a lot of dysfunctional underside root material being still readily available for the fungi to digest.

 

Roots are not technically like branch/trunch physiology.

 

Old roots have little functionality underneath.

Which is what Fung like Grifola & Merip utilise & take advantage of.

 

the critical battle ground is the upper section of the root cross section which is where the conductivity takes place. If this area fails then the roots become unmaintainable and perish leading to the potential for failure.

 

 

.......or sommmit like that.

 

 

Ofcourse further investigation on a tree to tree basis, is always the prudent approach with tree assesment.

 

 

 

 

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Edited August 17, 2010 by Monkey-D

[Lorry thompson]

Think I know what you mean ha so to evaluate the extent of the decay in the roots what are we looking for crown die-back etc?

It would be nice to leave it alone and monitor it if it was in the middle of a field but it is leaning toward a property.I certainly wouldn't like to say it's safe but also don't want to just tell them it needs to come out. The work I'm doing there is emergency works two oak limbs have split on two seperate trees which seems strange maybe this place is fungi fest il take a better look at the trees tomorrow only had a quick look as noticed the limbs on the way to a job and dropped a flyer in. Many thanks for advice by the way I'm newish to this side of things used to other people doing it and me just turning up and doing the work.