Hamadryads diary- a new chapter

Tony Croft aka hamadryad · February 18, 2012

Had a great day in Whippendell today, got a bit soggy towards the end though, braved it out for a while but enough was enough! I went in mainly to check on some beeches that I am waiting for failures on, with the big winds we had a while back i knew something dramatic would have occurred so off I went. I wanted to check several features, Meripilus colonisations, Ganoderma pfeifferi colonisations, several old limb drop wounds that are now extensivley decayed and some stazi ear forks that are current and active. All of them bar my number two choice for the next failure stand! lots of birches with Armillaria decay down, a platanoides snapped off at 20 feet and a few others but nothing major. heres my number 2 choice, and what a great vet this is going to become!

got some G. pfeifferis on a LONG dead beech, so confirms necrotrophic nature as these where actively growing and perfectly happy not regressing even despite this tree being dead over 10 years probably 20plus:001_huh:

and lastly, a real new one for me, Heterobassidion annosum on beech:001_smile:

Tony Croft aka hamadryad · February 21, 2012

Was a cracking sunny spring day today, the bulbs are out in full force and i always look forward to the winter aconites, even more than the snowdrops, but the bluebells rule the spring bulb roost in my book.

Found another Gleophylum separium again on a garden bench! I shall rename this the bench fungus! :lol:

And a rather amazing willow (weeping) This willow simply refuses to give up, completley colonised from tip to toe by the brown rot Laetiporus sulphereus (chicken of the woods or sulphur polypore) As you can se a limb dropped and even completly detached, rooted and continued!

When trees are allowed to continue their existence unmolested they can carry fungal and beetle etc esemblages over many many centuries providing a constant and stable habitat. Our managment objectives currently do not take this into account. I believe we should all wherever possible be managing trees with this complex ecology in mind, growing trees down and allowing them either to continue or to break down and return to the earth from whence they came in a natural order. We can do this, and we can still manage safety, even in the most urbanised areas, we just need to use our imaginations and do it. :001_cool:

RobArb · February 21, 2012

Nice pics:thumbup:, but hope you didn't drive over any root plates in that there big ole truck:sneaky2: :lol:

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

Tony Croft aka hamadryad · February 21, 2012

Nice pics:thumbup:, but hope you didn't drive over any root plates in that there big ole truck:sneaky2:

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

were only onto the edge of the grass there, along side the road you cant see cos of the low angle! :001_tt2:

Tony Croft aka hamadryad · February 24, 2012

This one today is for Treeseer, thought of you the minute I cut this one up. Another fine and timely prediction by the ever so cocksure Hama:lol:! I got shots of this somewhere standing we was due to reduce to stop it falling as I knew it would and well, didnt get to it in time! The mellea was but a small group when I visited, apparently a mass fruiting occured shortly after we was there and a gale finished the job.

Thats interesting because it would appear the A. mellea panic fruited a while before total collapse! Awesome evidence of panic fruiting if you ask me! Now all we need to do is work out what signals the fungi get to panic fruit, and how this may be transmitted to the entire mycelial network throughout the host.

So Tree seer, here is your photo, black stain on the bark and its associated mycelium fans of A. mellea. Not conclusive enough im sure, but you might at least begin to understand why the confidence! it isnt the first second or one hundreth time ive seen it! :thumbup1:

Tony Croft aka hamadryad · March 3, 2012

I have been to the four corners of the known fungal universe today! :lol:

I was working in Harrow, so arrived early ahead of the crew to check out some trees ive seen before in a park, in particular a beech (think its copper, see possible graft line) with lovely Ganoderma Pfeifferi's, also this tree has inonotus cuticularis in the main stem above and only just above the graft line.

Found a Horse chestnut with Ganoderma lucidums a first host combination for me and a surprise, though found it on lime too this winter.

A corpse of Quercus robur, downed by the meripilus giganteus some years ago (was fruiting last time I visited and bark was intact, so this ones going rapid, least the sapwood is.

Noted the walnut with hispidus a while ago on work journey so sneaked over to missenden for a snap or two.

Larix decidua in rickmansworth with ganoderma applanatums, a poplar I visited some 2 years ago and collectd a 57 inch wide bracket to trump Andrew cowens Fommes fomentarius! I couldnt let him lay claim to owning a bigger one than me! guess thats a man thing:lol:

A large (5ft diameter) oak with applanatum not a brick chuck from the Larix, making this site including Rickmansworth aquadrome a real G. applanatum hotspot, which explains the abundence of flat foot flies in the area too:thumbup1:

and close by, a 4-5ft diameter horse chestnut failure at the rootplate, now cleared but cleary had taken out a fence a power line and reached the opposite school gates:thumbdown: a single Ganoderma bracket on the lower stem was all the clues needed, this is a lethal combination of host fungus interaction. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS RELATIONSHIP FULL STOP