Dual Decay

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

How dare you call me a hic! lmao

 

BURP, mmm wheres that bottle of blossom hill "calafornia" gone now?

 

im sure it aint dry yet.....

[David Humphries]

and back to the fung

 

moving on from duel decay, i give you............the tripple distilled mega gano collective

 

Voila

 

Beech - pfeifferi, applanatum and/or resinaceum/lucidum, (tbc)

 

.

 

 

 

Will now add Podocypha to this happy little gathering.

 

Oh yeah, it also has tripe up on a wound higher up.

 

.

[David Humphries]

Originally saw these Colybias (first two) on the 3rd of August, happened to be in the vicinity again today.

 

Fistulina has now emerged also.

 

Will now retrench this Oak, later in the year.

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I wonder if the colybia having decayed the sap wood in the region has exposed the heartwood to air and hence the fistulina?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

heres a bit of a thought on colybia, been thinking about this fungus a lot lately as its so evident at the moment everywhere I go.

 

I wonder now if like armilaria it is a sapwood pathogen and is capable of failure etc but like armilaria is ubiquotus in the woodland landscape only winning when a tree is already hard done by?

 

Take these two images- From epping forest.

 

Now I cant confirm 100% that this is colybia decay, im only just strsating to "research" this particular fungus.

 

In this image i think that the eroded decay chanel is an old sap layer that was consumed via colybia, the tree over came the infection, only to reiterat its roots to a finer more sap wood content root system, only to sucumb at a later dat to the same fungi.

 

 

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

looking at your tree david the colybia has also gone in on the tension roots, these are distinctly lacking in this tree, suspect this is long term colonisation and that the fisti is there for the now exposed and dysfunctional hertwood.

 

your tree also has a lean, i suspect as with some others ive seen it goes over in a very gradual and slow proscess for a long time till maybe 10 20 30 years on its gotten so far advanced it fails, due to loss of the tension roots, increasing lean etc

[David Humphries]

There's a solitary shroom on compression side. So would appear to be all around the base of the tree, but mostly on tension.

 

Guessing here, that there are distinctly different tension/compressive forces at play on the two different types of roots (T & C), perhaps colybia has a preference for a weaker (tension) target?

 

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

indeed, i suspect this be the case also, it is often found on all sides, and girdling is frequent, but it is all too often predominantly on the tension roots, and my father and i found a perfect line of little colybia clumps coming up at various points along a leaning oaks tension root this month in fact.

 

I can only assume it is like the massaria in this regard, prefering the yogarty smooth tension wood fibres, as claus wood say, it doesnt like to work to hard and have to chew!

 

I am also seeing a coralation in this burring and inosculation adaption in old oaks that are riddled with fistulina etc, I think that this starts at the point when fistulina affects the heartwood to a large enoug degree that the hollowing eeffect reaches T/R ratios near to or over 3.5. I think this creates (see it in mid range aged oaks) the classic fibre buckles so common in oaks. These buckles (often become lifebelts) increasingly become burrs, and the internal structure of the wood becomes so complex and twisted "cat ball grain, claus" that it is not only inherantly resistant to buckling tensive forces imposed on the hollow stem, but also presents a very difficult and complex grain structure to colonisation by the rotters at its heart.

 

this then slows down the decay to a limit that the tree can grow over, and those inosculations i believe are a principle and key agent in the longevity and regeneration of a decaying center.

 

Im really getting somewhere with it all now, must spend some more time up windsor this weekend! ideal study ground!

[David Humphries]

From EF earlier today.

 

Laetiporus/Fistulina - Oak

 

.

[David Humphries]

Interesting tripple whammy, here on Oak.

From a wood up near Potters bar, earlier today.

 

Fistulina

Hypholoma

Armillaria rhizomorphs

 

 

.