Fungus ID on Elm

[Steve Bullman]

i looked at this Elm tree last week, its about 80ft tall and im reasonally happy its a fell.......but im not sure on the fungus ID. i only had my mobile phone so the pic quality is pretty bad. all that was left of the fungus was tall wilted stems but tearing off a bit of bark revealed thick plates of orange mycelium.

[MattyF]

at a guess i would say some sort of honey fungus but that photos crap steve!

 

seen quite a few big surviving elms finally get dutch elm this year so maybe its some sort of secondary infection? i think the drought really knocked them last year and been submerged in water now hasnt really helped but im sure thats the case with lots of dieing trees at the moment.

[Amelanchier]

I've taken hundreds of photos like that, with great intentions of following them up at home. Nightmare!

 

I think we can rule out Armillaria spp. though, as they have a creamy-white mycelium.

 

I agree with Matty, probably secondary saprophyte infection. Some of the ink-cap species have self-dissolving caps with white stems, in which case probably not structurally problematic.

 

Nothing like the thrill of having your felling cuts reveal a hollow manky big ol' tree though... Good times.

[Steve Bullman]

i cant take no chances with this one, its about 4 meters from a high voltage railway line.

[Amelanchier]

Do you have an increment borer? Or a resistograph? Elm's usually pretty hardcore I suppose.

[MattyF]

could be like this dead elm inside...

[/img]

one i climbed the other day felt like it was gonna fall out the ground..dont envey you if you have to climb it steve!i would opt for pulling it over....some thing about dead elm roots i dont trust evan if the heart woods solid.

[Steve Bullman]

i could have it tested with a resistograph, but i really dont think it warrants it....with the fact of where it is im happy it needs to come out. i dont think i'll do it myself though, for a start i doubt my insurance would cover it....also im pretty certain you're not allowed to work on trees within 5 meters of those lines? and ive also been told that the railways will do the work for free if its a hazard, i need to look into that.

pulling it over is definetly out of the question, also roping it will be a pain as it kinda grows straight up through a horse chestnut.

[Amelanchier]

Ah, I thought you meant you were planning to fell it. The resistograph can be used as an expensive way of working out if the hinge would be made of dust or rich tea biscuits.

[Steve Bullman]

sorry my mistake, i should have said removal.

[tockmal]

Tony mentioned the mycelia sheets of Armillaria being white, here is a pic -

 

The mycelial sheeting associated with honey fungus can be seen just above my thumb.

 

For anyone new to honey fungus, I'm holding the rhizomorphs(bootlaces).