how old?

[wakarb]

Found this big boy today in the grounds of a castle. What sort of age would a tree looking like this be? The canapy had a spread of 72 feet aprox.as you can see there was some funky looking fun as at the base both new and old.

 

 

 

 

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

300-400 years old, ganoderma sp most likely pfeifferi

 

nice tree

[Gollum]

the old way was to measure the tree at DBH and each inch would count as one year. example 36in DBH + 36 Years. depending on species,

 

Or cut it down and count the rings.

 

Lets see how wrong this is

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

the old way was to measure the tree at DBH and each inch would count as one year. example 36in DBH + 36 Years. depending on species,

 

Or cut it down and count the rings.

 

Lets see how wrong this is

 

that method is utter crap, trees dont grow even rings, not as they age nor from one site to the next are the rings even.

 

there are too many variables in ring growth to asses it based on stem diameter.

[RobArb]

The specific fung hold the key to age:biggrin:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The specific fung hold the key to age:biggrin:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

 

They offer a clue, which when combined with all other factors, soil fertility, weather, and all the tree specific macrofungi and adaptions or modifications due to abiotic/biotic factors.

 

fter all we can find stunted trees with hundreds of annual rings per inch

[Gollum]

that method is utter crap, trees dont grow even rings, not as they age nor from one site to the next are the rings even.

 

there are too many variables in ring growth to asses it based on stem diameter.

 

 

:lol:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

 

 

you knew you wouldnt get away with such a school boy remark!

[Gollum]

Crap or not.

There is no way of accurately judging the age of a tree.

You might have a park with extensive flora forna and fungi and have 2 trees planted 100 or more years apart with the same colonisations.

this information will only tell you the extent of the biodiversity of that area.

[Fungus]

You might have a park with extensive flora forna and fungi and have 2 trees planted 100 or more years apart with the same colonisations. this information will only tell you the extent of the biodiversity of that area.

 

Gollum,

What if this is a solitary beech and you would assess and monitor the tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi and their successive places in the tree species specific life cycle, would you then be able to estimate the age of the tree ?

My expectation would be, that this beech is predominantly accompanied by generalistic ectomycorrhizal symbionts, meaning the beech has entered the final phase of its life cycle, which would imply, that a beech this big is about 300 years old.