Managing Trees with Decay & Dysfunction

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

and once again, we see fistulina forced into the sapwood by laetiporus, and IMO the principal cause of the decline. Though this is not to say this happens in all colonisations, just some when specifics of the interaction mean that laetiporus has gained dominance within the heartwood and being a more complete decay than Fistulina leaves nothing for the fistulina to co colonise. Therefore the fistulina must (being biotrophic) move into a sapwood phase far earlier than would normaly be the case.

[Fungus]

The remaining branch was severly compromised by the attendance of both the brown rotting Laetiporus & Fistulina (first shot) Today I noted the white rotting Ganoderma lucidum fruiting either side of the last remaining live butress root, with also Xylaria polymorpha & Bjerkandera adusta at the base of the tree in the same area.

 

Quite an impressive example of several fungi working on bringing down and recycling the oak.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Quite an impressive example of several fungi working on bringing down and recycling the oak.

 

Thats what I thought!

 

I found an ash the other day with perenni, ganoderma applanatum and possibly also Ganoderma australe, show the photos later see what you think.

 

Got a lucidum on lime this week too, new substrate for me:thumbup1:

[Fungus]

Quite an impressive example of several fungi working on bringing down and recycling the oak.

 

IMO a tree like this should as long as possible be preserved as a mycological momument and as an example of the interaction between a tree and wood degrading fungi for the public.

[David Humphries]

IMO a tree like this should as long as possible be preserved as a mycological momument and as an example of the interaction between a tree and wood degrading fungi for the public.

 

If it stays within my watch, that's the exact strategy in mind.

 

 

I failed on this one partially, as for months I've been saying to myself that I should prop the remaining branch as it had a top side fracture that was slowly opening about three feet from the trunk.

 

Suprisingly it didn't fail there, but at the collar as the photos show

 

 

 

.

[treeseer]

Festooned with fungi!

 

Re xylaria, that seems to resemble a stage of Kretzschmaeria. I think I need to take a closer look before naming next time...

[ADB328]

David,

And "sitting" on and trying to colonize and penetrate the melanine plaque is a Trichoderma species, probably T. viride, the anamorph of Hypocrea rufa, of which the teleomorph also is present.

 

Melanine plaque?

[RobRainford]

If it stays within my watch, that's the exact strategy in mind.

 

 

I failed on this one partially, as for months I've been saying to myself that I should prop the remaining branch as it had a top side fracture that was slowly opening about three feet from the trunk.

 

Suprisingly it didn't fail there, but at the collar as the photos show

 

 

 

.

 

From what I believe tony has shown me, as fistulina has been forced into the sapwood, it could have been a contributing factor to the failure happening at the branch collar.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

IMO a tree like this should as long as possible be preserved as a mycological momument and as an example of the interaction between a tree and wood degrading fungi for the public.

 

absolutley, and that does not happen enough in my opinion. Managers in general seem to think that tidy is best!

 

From what I believe tony has shown me, as fistulina has been forced into the sapwood, it could have been a contributing factor to the failure happening at the branch collar.

 

its all theory though rob, but yes thats exactly what I am suggesting.

[Fungus]

Melanine plaque?

 

See my album on : rhizomorphs of Armillaria.