Fistulina hepatica

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Thought i would share my experiences off this brown rotter, for me this is an important fungi in the ecology of Oaks, but it would seem it has more serious implications elsewhere. Pictures are such a valuable reference material, they communicate so much more I feel than words can:thumbup1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RobArb]

mmmmmmmm beafsteak:eating:

[David Humphries]

So you believe the inosculation plates (pic 09, which I'd place a tenner on it being Staverton ) are a direct reaction to Fistulina, and not Laetiporus or both ?

 

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

So you believe the inosculation plates (pic 09, which I'd place a tenner on it being Staverton ) are a direct reaction to Fistulina, and not Laetiporus or both ?

 

 

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Theory only-

 

I think they are a reaction to cavitation at advanced stages, be that by any SLOW heart/ripewood rotter. The thinnest areas of the shell tend to have buckles, and the slow progress of decay through the annual increments, as in the surrounding shell (unbuckled portions) become dysfunctional innosculations take place. I havent worked out yet whether the tissues surrounding the occulsions/inosculations are dysfunctional, but i know it is where wall thickness is weak.

 

It is clear they are specialist adaptions to shell thinning, i have seen it in Beech riddled with cuticularis at burnham beeches too. I am not saying this happens in ALL trees but certain slow heart rots of beech and of oak in some old growth areas certainly seem to have high numbers of this mode of adapt-ion.

 

I think of them as a hand laid on for support, and it also makes the further progress of the colonisation of newer layers very difficult for the decay organisms, as distorted layers of inosculation, and doubled layers of suberised bark and distorted grain patterns make a very complex maze for fungi to circumnavigate. it is after all the compartmentalised nature of wood that makes progress of fungi slow.

 

A theory of co evolutionary adaption, one that i am sure many will see as just innosculations brought on by disrupted growth till it is fully and thoroughly evaluated. When I know how i will do so!

[Fungus]

mmmmmmmm beafsteak:eating:

 

Rob,

Any idea why it is called "poor man's beafsteak" ? Could it be because the fruitbodies contain a high concentration of vinegar acid, the mycelium has "pumped out" from the oak ?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Unfortunatley it doesnt occur quick enough in some trees, but the buckles that instigate the inosculation are still present. This is a rare occurrence in fistulina and tends to occur in trees that have not stag headed or naturally re trenched and bear still full heavy crowns, particularly in competition situations where growth is forced to the outer crown and cannot be initialised within the lower canopy/stem crown. One of the keys to longevity in oaks is adaptation to progressive decay, the tree must grow down, or it will become increasingly structurally overstretched and resources will be out of reach at the crown periphery rather than where they are needed. An over mature tree with old and dysfunctional volumes cannot distribute resources as efficiently as the young tree, and growth near to structural faults is key in resource availability to adapt.

 

IMO reduction and the process of encouraging a crown form with growth at vital structural points is key in preserving our veterans/problem trees.

 

[Fungus]

Thought i would share my experiences off this brown rotter, for me this is an important fungi in the ecology of Oaks, but it would seem it has more serious implications elsewhere. Pictures are such a valuable reference material, they communicate so much more I feel than words can:thumbup1:

 

Tony,

In my opinion, the second photo shows a dry brown or cubical rot typical of Laetiporus sulphureus and only the last photo shows the type of bark and cambium necrosis caused by the mycelium of Fistulina hepatica invading the cambium. In The Netherlands, all very old Quercus robur are hollowed out by L. sulphureus, after which they loose the major branches of their crowns and some of them also have the necrosis "cancers" typical of F. hepatica. In my experience, F. hepatica only causes a pattern of circular (wet) brown rotted year rings from which the acids have been consumed, which are interspaced by non-effected intact year rings, because the mycelium grows inside out using the starch rich radial rays as a passage way. Besides, it is even assumed, that F. hepatica could cause a species specific type of soft rot too.

And most of the photo's depicting fruitbodies on the tree, show that they emerge from underneath the callus at the side of the wounds or break through the (intact) bark, which indicates, that the mycelium (as always ?) fruits from energy (sugar polymeres) drained from the cambium and/or other living tissue and not from the (dead) wood of the tree.

[Fungus]

Unfortunatley it doesnt occur quick enough in some trees, but the buckles that instigate the inosculation are still present. This is a rare occurrence in fistulina and tends to occur in trees that have not stag headed or naturally re trenched and bear still full heavy crowns, particularly in competition situations where growth is forced to the outer crown and cannot be initialised within the lower canopy/stem crown. One of the keys to longevity in oaks is adaptation to progressive decay, the tree must grow down, or it will become increasingly structurally overstretched and resources will be out of reach at the crown periphery rather than where they are needed. An over mature tree with old and dysfunctional volumes cannot distribute resources as efficiently as the young tree, and growth near to structural faults is key in resource availability to adapt.

IMO reduction and the process of encouraging a crown form with growth at vital structural points is key in preserving our veterans/problem trees.

 

Tony,

We totally agree on this being the life cycle veteran oak trees have to "live through" to survive, but in my opinion and experience, only Laetiporus sulphureus plays this role, so I assume, this photo also shows the dry brown or cubical rot caused by L. sulphureus ?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I will come back to this with some more photos, in the meantime there is a blackened fruitbody of fistulina on that failed limb, and the decay was a fine powder rather than cubicle, niether did it have the more orange tones asociated with laet, and much more of the red rotted tones of fistulina. The volume of humic (wood mould) of a fine powdery texture that fell on the forest floor with this failure al indicate fistulina.

 

But I am very open to your views of course, and i shall continue to "show and tell" in reply to any points, you know far more bout this than i do of that there can be no argument!

[David Humphries]

Gerrit, do you know if the presence of mycelial sheets through the decayed wood where we find brown rot on oak, is indicative of either one or both of Laetiporus & Fistulina ?

 

 

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