Unusual bark colour and plating?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Maybe u have a new species of ash, maybe you could name it fraxinus excelsior "flaky epidermicum"!

[Albedo]

I blew the original image up in size last night but there ainty enough pixy dots in it to see anything. Bundles link didn't go anywhere picture wise either.

[Bundle 2]

Species question mark(?)....I totally am knowing where you are headed....! Think on "Jaspidea" for example. There exists a tendency to show this coloration in the bark from this species (Ash) and whilst the young bark displays a greenish tone (chlorophyll is present in bark, indeed , capable of photosynthetic processes usually confined to the "leaf") the older specimen Fraxinus excelsior is perhaps guilty of hues of golden...? If not...what gives rise to hybridised species varieties like "Jaspidea"

Tony...already i hear your cries of " me thinks he protest too much!" You may be right but you aren't online to repudiate my vociferous meanderings!

I am only sorry to disappoint in the final analysis by failing to provide a full size image.....I am happy to pass on "Snail grazing" until further notice!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

LOL, "The unsolved mystery of the flaky ash"

 

or for the micheal takers " the meanderings of a flaky arb with too much time on his hands!"

[Bundle 2]

Maybe it is lichens actually eating other lichens....We see it in fungi, it also occurs in lichens (?) Explains the coloration anyway!

[RobArb]

your realy not sold on the snails are you haha!!

[Bundle 2]

your realy not sold on the snails are you haha!!

Ha ha ha...yeah I know. In fact I am just acutely aware that no-one on this site has been able to inspect the image at closer quarters....

The lichens idea has been spun by a gent who would seem to be a bit of a encyclopedia....and he's seen the image better than this.

I am actually sitting on the fence here....They both seem like plausable answers to me....but that bark aint flaky...its bloody yellow for christ sake!!

 

[RobArb]

where did you get the pic and is it now impossible to get a close up?

 

me not know what think no more:confused:!!

[Albedo]

A little reading tells me that lichens take most of their nutrients from the air and moisture around them and that they photosynthesise, so they grow in wet and light conditions and not so much when dry and dark.

 

So based on this limited knowledge I am going to hazard that the colouring may be down to the growth stage of the lichen. The compartments with dark boundaries are a mystery, could this be individual 'plant' boundries. The flaking can't be seen closely and may just be these dark boundries.

 

Here's a close up I found somewhere of lichen on ash, perhaps, Monkey D could use his renowned drawing on photos skills to add a snail:001_smile:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The image above is rather intersting, almost colonies of lichen entities bordered by a psuedo- psuedosclerotial plate! fascinating, and even more reason for me to start looking to lichens a bit more.

 

Bundles image is way to uniform me thinks, a plausible explanation from both the snail and lichen sides.