Dual Decay

[daltontrees]

Complete wiht screw-on fungal brackets on hitherto unknown hosts, and larch decked out with cedar cones like baubles on christmas trees. That sort of thing? I'll bring a rope and harness...

[Warren Stirling]

Had a look at this oak today.The customer already told me that he had sent a sample of the bracket off to the RHS and they had informed him that it was Inonotus dryadeus. Firstly I noted the Merpilus present as well, but I really don't believe that the other brackets are dryadeus ??

 

W

[sloth]

As no one else is replying I'll stick my neck out. The third pic almost looks like old laeti, but the rest do look like dessicated dryadeus to me. Especially from below with the discolouration on the pores. I suppose a sample to http://www.treehelp.info/ the tree advice trust may be an option. I'd be wary of any tree with both merip and dryadeus, or chicken, whichever it may be...

[David Humphries]

oak with the basal white rot decay of Inonotus dryadeus & the upper trunk brown rot of Fistulina hepatica.

 

 

.

[daltontrees]

The following pics are not that remarkable, as Fomes fomentarius and Piptoporus betulinus are both very common on birch. I was up near Grantown on Spey and Aviemore at the weekend, first I spotted a couple of nice examples of each species (first and second pics), then two similar Birch stems beside each other, one with Ff and the other with Pb. Finally (last pic, look closely top and bottom) found a stem with both species.

[daltontrees]

Sorry, here's a closer shot of the Ff in the last pic.

Anyway, these two species don't seem too fussy about co-infection. Pb is a brown rot of the stem, resulting eventually in brittle failure. Ff is a white rot of the stem, often resulting in a still-attached partially brittle partially ductile fracture. Like Jack Sprat and his wife, they appear between them to lick the platter clean. I was unable in a short period to reach any reliable conclusion as to which species came first, whether one operated gnerally higher from the ground than the other or whether there was any conflict in modes of decay between co-infested or secondarily infested stems.

[David Humphries]

Sorry, here's a closer shot of the Ff in the last pic.

Anyway, these two species don't seem too fussy about co-infection. Pb is a brown rot of the stem, resulting eventually in brittle failure. Ff is a white rot of the stem, often resulting in a still-attached partially brittle partially ductile fracture. Like Jack Sprat and his wife, they appear between them to lick the platter clean. I was unable in a short period to reach any reliable conclusion as to which species came first, whether one operated gnerally higher from the ground than the other or whether there was any conflict in modes of decay between co-infested or secondarily infested stems.

 

 

 

Interesting to ponderon which came first where two different species of fungi co-habit.

Particularly where there are two different colonising strategies at play.

 

Here in X section from the same trunk as the bracket image, the simultaneous white rot of Fomes fomentarius (top bracket first shot) and the brown rot of Piptoporus betulinus (lower bracket)

 

Not entirely sure on the Fomes, (especially as I heard Lynne Boddy recently talking about how most spores can be found latent within cells of woody plants) but the Pipto is known as a sapwood intact strategist waiting for wounding to occur before initiating its decay

 

 

.

[David Humphries]

The white (lignin destroying) rot of both Ganoderma applanatum/lipsiense & Fomes fomentarius here on this beech monolith

 

.

[David Humphries]

Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) brown rot, associating with the & middle & upper portions of this willow monolith trunk & Ganoderma lipsiense/applanatum white rot, associating ith the mifddle & lower basal region of the trunk.

 

The tree has been standing dead for 6 years.

 

The Laetiporus images (below) are from 2010, whilst the Ganoderma images (last three) are from today.

 

.

[David Humphries]

Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) brown rot, associating with the & middle & upper portions of this willow monolith trunk & Ganoderma lipsiense/applanatum white rot, associating ith the mifddle & lower basal region of the trunk.

 

The tree has been standing dead for 6 years.

 

The Laetiporus images (below) are from 2010, whilst the Ganoderma images (last three) are from today.

 

We needed to reduce this monolith today due to the white rot of the Ganoderma at the base.

 

The branches & upper woody volumes show the brown rot of Laetiporus and the ring (taken from the mid section) shows where the two types of decay co-habit.

 

.