Base decay in eucalyptus

[Arbor Logic]

yeah but we all know australias full of oddities!

 

Australia, with a capital A thank you

[Fungus]

a big euc with exactly the same problem ... honey fungus and did find plenty of bootlaces under the dead bark ... except for this rot which only really extended about 10 - 20mm in to the tree

 

Which is typical for the first phase of outside in wood decay (white rot) by the mycelium of necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species, shielded off on the outside by thin black melanine plates.

[Fungus]

1. Specifically I was referring to Brassicaceae, however there are many others.

2. Also many Australian trees are NM including the family Proteaceae which includes Grevillea, Hakea, Banksia etc. These plants develop cluster roots and are highly resistant to Mycorrhizal association.

 

1. Even among the Brassicaceae, there are some exceptions (see : Brassica & VAM), as Brassica napus and B. oleracea turn out to be optional mycorrhizal in associating with endomycorrhizal species such as Glomus fasciculatum.

And I said, that over 90 % of the green plants are endomycorrhizal, so the "many others" must belong to the less then 10 % left.

The most successful plant species on earth - the grasses - are endomycorrhizal, so maybe that's why they, combined with their easy dispersed tiny seeds long distance spread by birds, have succeeded in colonizing the farthest corners of the world and are such tough competitors with other plants and some endomycorrhizal tree species, that trees species such as Acer (water withdrawal) and Aesculus (slow degrading of foliage) invest in keeping them out of their root system territories.

2. As an European mycologist and forest ecologist, I'm not familiar with these tree species. Can you tell me how these tree species protect and defend themselves against and shield off roots from tree invading parasitic or wood degrading fungi and/or other damaging organisms and how often they don't succeed in preventing or outgrowing attacks by parasites ?

And are any tree species specific parasitic and saprotrophic fungi known from these tree species, or are they colonized by cosmopolitan generalistic parasitic or saprotrophic macrofungi, such as Armillaria mellea/ostoyae, Kretzschmaria deusta or Trametes versicolor ?

[Arbor Logic]

1. Come and have a look at our poplars colonized by Pholiota populnea, our elms by Hypsizygus ulmarius and Polyporus squamosus, our apple trees by Inonotus hispidus, Pholiota aurivella and Polyporus varius and our Acer and Pterocarya by Polyporus squamosus and Pleurotus dryinus, after their wounds had been treated some 15 years ago with sealants such as topsin, creating a perfect micro-climate for germination of always and everywhere present fungal spores.

2. Not just chemicals, rhizomorphs of Armillaria species are capable of altering radio-active material (Tsjernobyl) in such a way, that the energy stored in the caesium partially is set free to be used by the mycelium as a "nutrient" for development of new mycelial structures. And some species like Bjerkandera adusta, Hypholoma fasciculare and Mycena galericulata, are capable of producing chemicals such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons or organohalogens themselves to decompose wood with.

 

Caesium being used as a nutrient to make new mycelia structures? Ah.............. I don't think I could support that without seeing some data

[Arbor Logic]

Interstingly they are all prone to attack from phytopthera..as to their defense mechanisms they are all plants from a depleted system in usually an arid environment. Their root systems allow an increase in the absorption of P.

[Fungus]

Interstingly they are all prone to attack from phytopthera..as to their defense mechanisms they are all plants from a depleted system in usually an arid environment.

 

So one "primitive" parasitic oomycete interacts with or kills other "primitive" plants within these depleted systems in arid environments and there is not one parasitic macrofungus known from these plant species ?

[Fungus]

Cesium being used as a nutrient to make new mycelia structures? I don't think I could support that without seeing some data

 

You're right , my mistake, not as a nutrient and without using the energy stored in the radioactive material for new mycelial structures while uptaking and transporting cesium 137.

My poor recollection of the published facts misconstrued the conclusions of the following research, in which is stated, that melanine covered rhizomorphs are the structures most capable of uptaking, temporarely storing, transporting and (re)distributing cesium 137 in the soil over long distances, a subject, that has become current again after the recent nuclear disaster in Japan.

On radio-active food poisening by air, also see this article on mushrooms and radioactive cesium.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

You're right , my mistake, not as a nutrient and without using the energy stored in the radioactive material for new mycelial structures while uptaking and transporting cesium 137.

My poor recollection of the published facts misconstrued the conclusions of the following research, in which is stated, that melanine covered rhizomorphs are the structures most capable of uptaking, temporarely storing, transporting and (re)distributing cesium 137 in the soil over long distances, a subject, that has become current again after the recent nuclear disaster in Japan.

On radio-active food poisening by air, also see this article on mushrooms and radioactive cesium.

 

Your still the daddy fungus!

[APC]

Right,

 

Went and had another look, should really have had a closer look last time around as there are parts that are a little beyond 2mm deep, in fact let's just say 2 digits deep of decay (really only spent about 4 seconds looking at it last time, spent more time uploading the pic).

 

Pulling up the soil though I couldn't make out any stringy structures. Pulling away a bush on the other side and there is a smaller area of identical decay. I've left a message with tree orificer to come have a look, with a view to hardcore pollard or total removal.

[treeseer]

Thanks much for checking back in. We'll keep things on track from here.

 

... there are parts that are a little beyond 2mm deep, in fact let's just say 2 digits deep of decay

 

Does that mean over 10 cm, or 2 fingers? If so, which two?

But seriously that does little to quantify decay. If assessment is the tree officer's job, okay.

Pulling up the soil though I couldn't make out any stringy structures. Pulling away a bush on the other side and there is a smaller area of identical decay.

If by identical you mean with the same positive tree response, that is a good thing for the tree's prognosis. That first wound did not look huge at all, with a solid response, above ground anyway.

I've left a message with tree orificer to come have a look, with a view to hardcore pollard or total removal.

And what fungal strategy is that view based upon? If just those two wounds, there should indeed be another view. Francis Schwarze shows his classes pictures of much larger trunk wounds and asks about strength loss %. In most cases the answer is 0% or perhaps even a minus % loss due to strong interior codit and wall 4 woundwood development.

 

Tomograph gives very strong confirmation of this. Where the wound contacts the earth that is much more serious, which is why breaking the contact of earth to decay, by a sterile perlite or other barrier and NO foreign products , seems like a reasonable response. Pruning lessens resources for compartmentalization, so the need and the dose need careful consideration.

 

VTA risk assessment looks at strengths And weaknesses. That's one arborist's view. I'm sure others will agree.