Bracket fungi at base of oak/quercus

[hesslemount]

Hi Guys

 

Pretty sure I know the species but want confirmation from the forum. I'll not put my obvious answer as not to sway the vote.

 

Found at the base of Quercus robur, english / pedunculate oak with tree trunk approx. 22 inch diameter at base height (dbh). Fruited 6-weeks ago and then decomposed to a cheesy mass 1-week ago.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[sean]

chicken of the woods

[chris cnc]

Laetiporus sulphureus aka chicken of the woods/ sulphur polypore

 

causes a brown heartwood rot

[chris cnc]

any other symptoms? depending on targets etc you might want to get the tree looked at by a consultant

[Bart]

Looks like Laetiporus sulphureus to me

 

Laetiporus sulphureus - Chicken of the wood/Sulphur Polypore - David Humphries’s Fungi Directory - Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists

[Bundle 2]

any other symptoms? depending on targets etc you might want to get the tree looked at by a consultant

 

Rarely culminates in failure. Oak can live with and compartmentalize the chicken alot of the time ime. It does happen tho'. There's a thread hereabouts that started to document failures from the sulphur polypore.....Not saying you shouldn't look into it a bit further.....

[chris cnc]

interesting bit of info. i've recently seen it cause a couple of branch failures in woodland oak. nothing major though really

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Judging from the fact it is at the base i would want a T/R ratio evaluation, if found to be near or over the limit, a fracto to determine residual wood strength of thin wall.

 

laeti can at times find a way in to modify the sapwood layer, looking at your bracket this is a distinct possability.

 

Check it out

[chris cnc]

 

laeti can at times find a way in to modify the sapwood layer, looking at your bracket this is a distinct possability.

 

is there anything in particular that suggests this? size/form of bracket or its position on the tree maybe?

 

just curious

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The laeti is a top down rotter, this needs no further explanation?

 

A wound parasite that makes its home in the heartwood where it preferentialy degrades cellulose leaving only the brittle lignin, however, usualy in the healthy/vital oak this is contained within the heartwood. in later stages this means that a thinner and thinner wall develops around a cavity and the whole tree is effectivley hollow. As long as the tree is vital, it continues to contain the fungi to the heartwood and the cambium/sapwood continues to grow, limbs are lost and retrenchment begins, and often by the time the fungi is too far into the tree and sensessence begins it has with the assitance of the fungi, grown down enough for the thin residual wall to be of no structural concern, it will have effectively self pollarded.