the body language of Decay, The Delights of D

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

nice one was bitterly cold today, actually got a day off to go explore and take some piccy's! (hint hint the blog:lol:)

 

mmm o.k O.K i will go see it!

[RobArb]

mmm o.k O.K i will go see it!

 

haha no pressure or nothing:blushing: it is only 3 days old!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

haha no pressure or nothing:blushing: it is only 3 days old!

 

Good job Rob, arbography, I like it:thumbup1:

 

I am so pleased there are a growing band of us out there banging on and on about trees in a posative light, it can only improve the current viewpoint:001_cool:

[RobArb]

thats the plan, but time will tell!

 

anyway back to decay:thumbup: The pics i posted... when IS a tree mature enough to show signs of buckling? Is it hard to distinguish apart from the age difference?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

No its not hard to distinguish, creases/folds are differnt.

[RobArb]

i'll keep looking them, practice practice practice an all that!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

O.k as promised keeping it going!

 

So lets look at one of my favourites, the relationship between Quercus robur and Fistulina hepatica. (deal with other brown rots of oak later, daedalea quercina, laeitporus etc

 

As already mentioned these are MY observations, and they are under constant refinements and reviews as i deepen my awareness and appreciation of complex relationship details and find examples that illustrate my theories.

 

Oaks, in particular Q. robur are in my opinion one of the most evolved, one of the most "advanced" of the trees of our European climate/biosphere. I feel this because oaks have very complex modes of adaption, from complex heartwood formation to structural modifications, one of which I am going to "illustrate" here.

 

This is only a small portion of this equation, but an important "first stage" in the proscess of a long, long life of oaks, the robur is a true master of longevity and containment, so lets paint a picture.

 

 

In this image, a fine specimen from Windsor, we see the ultimate expression of this relationships co evolutionary story. Everything about trees is there to be read, I am no master, the trees and the fungi are the masters of this environment. I am thier student, and as dedicated as I am i will always be thier student, never thier master.

 

 

In this image we see (as requested fruitbodies WITH symptoms, monkeyD:001_smile:) brown rot is said to not be that revealing in body language, this is not at all in my opinion true, and make no apologies for that statement! Cleary the same kind of language is visible as that of a wrinkly sock (remember the Burnham Beeches?) bulges in this case caused by shell buckling and the buckles forming "swellings" later these become burred, see the rear of this limb, where backward windloads have caused a fibre buckle and become burred:001_smile:

 

 

This image shows a young oak that is colonised by fistulina at an advanced stage for the trees biological age, shell bucklings appear as though a white rot is once again the strategy and causing "subsiding" rather than buckling by shell deformations.

 

 

Here we see what is called an "inosculation" (thanks Mr sorensen for the correct terminology:thumbup1:) The buckles eventualy cause growth to be forced over the existing tissues, efectivley creating a second coat, bark contains Suberin and is a very effective barrier to most fungi. A combination of a discontinuos trunk, burring and inosculation all combine to make a complex maze of internal structures that fungi find hard to circumnavigate. this is why really old oaks like the first image in this series survive so long, they grow at a slower pace, these growth forms take resources to maintain but the fungi cant outpace the growth, and the nutrients the fungi release give the tree much needed sustenance to continue.

 

 

In this image we see F. hepatica fruiting from within the heartwood tracing up the dead branch, a valuable ally in shedding old redundant limbs. remember, fistulina is the trees "prefered fungal ally" it is far less aggressive than others that exist in the environment, out competing potential invasions from latent or pioneer fungi that may be more "detrimental" like polyporus squamosus, ganoderma australe etc etc etc

 

 

The burring is highly prone to epicormic growth, these growth flushes are often annualy produced, they die because they arent producing the goods (carbohydrates) in a dark environment, but when a limb fails these burrs are exposed to light, and the next flush recieves the light required to produce the goods.

 

 

limb failures seem at first catastrophies, but for a long lived tree, that has out lasted its nieghbours now finds it needs not such statures and can "grow down" (good old Ted green) Fistulina enables this proscess, it is "advantagious"

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

mmmm.... the silence is deafening!

 

No one wanna talk about this one?

 

I must have gone too far this time!

 

I know.... i know, im a bit, well, maybe more than a bit unhinged:crazy:

[RobArb]

just trying to soak up the info first, i truly am at novice level and the more i listen and learn the better for me in the long run. I could try to muster an opinion on this matter but its either already been covered or to basic to warrant even a reply:lol:

 

I do enjoy reading your posts hama, please carry on i shall try to intervene and correspond more in the future!

[Ben Ballard]

good post tony the buckleing is cool i have been looking about today after reading this and found a oak that ticks all the boxes to what you said niceone:thumbup1: