Australian Fungi

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Good stuff Sean, very very good stuff, me and david got some competition, bravo.

 

I do love the lucidum, such a fantastic bracket fung

[sean freeman]

Thanks for the compliment Tony, the many posts that both you and David have made over the past few years have helped me feel much less isolated...and not the out of balance loon that it seemed I was compared to 90% of other Arborists (not for one moment suggesting that I am not a loon, certainly I am...but not-I like to believe-because of my obsession with the critical links between older trees and everything else).

 

I am very envious of your encylopedic knowledge of the fruiting brackets you encounter in your work and 'free' time. More and more of my life seems to be spent in front of a computer screen and less and less doing what I love tramping around bumping into special old trees and their associates.

[David Humphries]

You're only a few hours away, come on fella, pop ya self on a flight, I'm sure the H and I would be happy to take you around the fungi hotspots of the southeast

 

 

 

 

Seriously though sean, if you're ever back this way, give us a shout

 

 

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

You're only a few hours away, come on fella, pop ya self on a flight, I'm sure the H and I would be happy to take you around the fungi hotspots of the southeast

 

 

 

 

Seriously though sean, if you're ever back this way, give us a shout

 

 

 

.

 

Yeah wot he said!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Thanks for the compliment Tony, the many posts that both you and David have made over the past few years have helped me feel much less isolated...and not the out of balance loon that it seemed I was compared to 90% of other Arborists (not for one moment suggesting that I am not a loon, certainly I am...but not-I like to believe-because of my obsession with the critical links between older trees and everything else).

 

I am very envious of your encylopedic knowledge of the fruiting brackets you encounter in your work and 'free' time. More and more of my life seems to be spent in front of a computer screen and less and less doing what I love tramping around bumping into special old trees and their associates.

 

Its not the fung/veteren tree hunters that are the loons, its those working with trees that have no idea this stuff even exists!

[sean freeman]

So I'm back up north for three weeks (one week already gone!!!) and went back to find my monster bracket...somewhat surprisingly it was still there, carrying it to the car soon convinced me that thoughts of sending this down south to accompany me to future presentations was just wishful thinking...it weighs a ton (well okay 12kg to be accurate).

 

I got it home and cut it in two, it took some doing (yes thankyou I know...not anywhere near as fit or strong as I used to be:001_tt2:)

 

Had to clean it up since the saw smeared all the features I was hoping to reveal. Anyway nothing too dramatic other than the huge length of the spore tubes, and the interesting history of the bracket's development.

[sean freeman]

The length of the pore layers was something that surprised me, I thought there would be a great many shorter layers.

 

In places the length exceeded 50mm, you can also clearly see the sticks which have been incorporated into the F/B.

[David Humphries]

That Phellinus is an absolute brute.

 

great set of shots sean, many thanks for taking the time to indulge us

 

 

 

Any bugs come a crawlin' out ?

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[sean freeman]

When I brought it home last night there were lots of slugs sliding over it and a number of small beetles...it was too dark to photograph (the camera I have at the mo has no flash:blushing:)

 

Come the morning the conk was alive with very active small ants, I assume they were inside it but don't really know...we have lots of ants here so it is almost possible they 'found' the conk and were in the process of evicting the residents.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Nice! definatley had a few bugs bore into it at some stage, have you identified it?