Big Fungi

[Bart]

Ill see your 8years and raise it by another 3. This is fruiting from a Beech that was felled in 2000 and left as a high stump, five years ago i cut it to ground level and soiled over. Is it proven that there is only one sp of M. giganteus, or is there a similar more sapro type?

[Ben Ballard]

 

lol just found these photos must have been down from around 87

[Fungus]

these photos must have been down from around 87

 

Ben,

Such prolific fruiting with such big FB's needs more than just the remains of a bit of dead wood left behind in the soil :

- because to produce this volume of reproductive organs, the mycelium needs about 120 % volume of the sugar polymer cellulose, which is about 70-80 % of the wood, to convert to 100 % volume of the sugar polymer chitin, of which the hyphae of the mycelium and cells of the FB's are (partially) formed,

- so there has to be a connection of the mycelium to still present living tissue of main and/or adventitious roots, that have a storage of energy, that stays behind in the sapwood and cambium of the roots and is no longer transported to the tree and its ectomycorrhizal symbionts,

- although I have sometimes seen ectomycorrhizal macrofungi fruit from remaining roots long after the tree was felled and removed and/or the stump was grinded and even a few times together with FB's of Meripilus giganteus surfacing from the same roots.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I think there are different strains, there are certainly two strains here in the U.K, ive already noted the very different fruiting bodies of two forms, different enough to be easily distinguished.

 

Laetiporus conifericola, is an example of a different strain of a fungi, little reason to not assume there are various strains of meripilus, and some strains of grifola will not fruit in comercial production, whereas some will.

 

I dont think we can rule out a different strain of meripilus just yet.

[Ben Ballard]

nice one gerrit cool information, i thought i had lost this photo but was in a different file i posted the young forming fruit in a different thread a couple weeks ago