Bifurcated beech, Fomes and ball of roots

[Fungus]

Documentation of a bifurcated beech with first fruiting of Fomes fomentarius after half of the fork came down, with in the centre of the second photo a ball of adventitious rootlets rooting in the moist and decayed wood at the bottom of the split forcing the forks apart.

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[armybloke]

What in your opinion made the fork fail in the first instance? Presence of Fomes or was there an anditional vector involved?

[RobArb]

Apparently the ball of adventitious rootlets:biggrin:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[Fungus]

What in your opinion made the fork fail in the first instance? Presence of Fomes or was there an additional vector involved?

 

Marco,

In that order, the Fomes mycelium white rotted the bottom of the poor union, after which the rootlets developed, that split the base of the fork until one fork failed under the outward pressure and fell down.

[armybloke]

Clever!

[treeseer]

What in your opinion made the fork fail in the first instance? Presence of Fomes or was there an anditional vector involved?

Vectors aka stressors involved in codom tearouts often include wind and rain, not to mention a lack of supplemental support aka a cable.

Expanding rootlets in that pic do look pretty muscular; a probable factor.

[Fungus]

Vectors aka stressors involved in codom tearouts ( ) often include wind and rain, not to mention a lack of supplemental support aka a cable . Expanding rootlets in that pic do look pretty muscular; a probable factor.

 

Thanks for your brilliant analysis of what caused a beech standing in the sheltered environment of a dense beech woodland to split and fail.

[treeseer]

Thanks for your brilliant analysis of what caused a beech standing in the sheltered environment of a dense beech woodland to split and fail.

 

Happy to share theories, my friend! Those fuzzy little rootlets definitely needed some help in forcing that fork apart! Even if wind and rain loading was shared by neighbors, that beech had its share.

[Fungus]

Those fuzzy little rootlets definitely needed some help in forcing that fork apart! Even if wind and rain loading was shared by neighbors, that beech had its share.

 

Thanks for the armchair "theory" on a tree you didn't assess yourself and that didn't fail during rain and/or storm.

And as I said before, the ball of rootlets did get some help from the simultaneous white rot caused by and mycelial sheets or felts of Fomes fomentarius, that were before present in (the base of) the split.

Edited November 8, 2011 by Fungus

[treeseer]

And again, you're very welcome, kind sir! Those factors did seem to play a part, but that could be confirmed by an aerial assessment. The failure could have been prevented by pruning or support, but that is the owner's decision.

 

O and I hope you do not stop making armchair analyses and theorizing here, on trees you did not personally assess.

Edited November 8, 2011 by treeseer