phaeolus on radiata

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

awesome stuff hama thankyou - i can learn a lot from this. its help like this that makes arbtalk such a useful tool to all users. doing a professional tree survey course soon. i cant wait!!!!!!!!

 

 

Good luck on the course, which one are you doing?

 

glad it was helpfull

[gibbon]

Tony your right in your interpretation of whats going on. Also I am aware that both you and fungus have a much deaper understanding of and ability to describe the actions of decay fungus than I do. I have however worked on, felled and inspected quite a few Monterey Pines as whopping great mature ones are 2 a penny round here.

 

My experience of this tree leads me to think that long before decay become a structural problem in these trees (unless it is present in the region where stems bifuricate) crown condition will already be well into decline. These trees grow quickly and have big vessles in the wide sap wood rings. I believe that soon after infection with phaeolus, the vessels become partly dysfunctional. As the tree becomes stressed at this early stage some times red band needle blight begins to thin the foliage and the crown starts to become very sparse. Other times large limbs begin to fail. We all know these are fast growing trees that end up with very heavy, end weighted limbs. I think when the trees become stressed they are unable to lay down reaction wood fast enough and big chunks drop off. Either way the size, weight and sail area of the crown is reduced so that gfailure becomes less likely.

 

In the case of this tree, if the crown condition is still relaitively good, some thinning and reduction of the large heavy branches would be advised to reduce the likely hood of branch failure. I dont know what the staining is on the bark, I've never seen it to that extent.

 

I could send you copies of a couple of inspections from this year if you like. Both trees were knackered, one of which was surounding by huge phaelolus fb's but it was still the failure of one of the stems, rather than the whole tree which I was concerned about.

 

After felling some of these pines, I have always been supprised by the relatively small amount of fully decayed wood you see at ground level. I am pretty convinced that the crown will disappear long before the stem collapses in the vast majority of Monterey Pines infected by this fungus, due to the shear mass of their stems.

Edited December 17, 2011 by gibbon

[arbmark]

Good luck on the course, which one are you doing?

 

glad it was helpfull

 

Cheers Tony - its part of the NPTC Level 3 Diploma in

Work-based Trees and Timber (new i think). I'm on the waiting list.

 

Thanks also gibbon - all very useful and i appreciate the deeper knowledge of others its possible to call on here

 

Tip end weight reduction to minimise further loss of primary branches and continual monitoring of crown health thereon seems the way to go. The whole things going to be slimy with rook poop though!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Tony your right in your interpretation of whats going on. Also I am aware that both you and fungus have a much deaper understanding of and ability to describe the actions of decay fungus than I do. I have however worked on, felled and inspected quite a few Monterey Pines as whopping great mature ones are 2 a penny round here.

 

My experience of this tree leads me to think that long before decay become a structural problem in these trees (unless it is present in the region where stems bifuricate) crown condition will already be well into decline. These trees grow quickly and have big vessles in the wide sap wood rings. I believe that soon after infection with phaeolus, the vessels become partly dysfunctional. As the tree becomes stressed at this early stage some times red band needle blight begins to thin the foliage and the crown starts to become very sparse. Other times large limbs begin to fail. We all know these are fast growing trees that end up with very heavy, end weighted limbs. I think when the trees become stressed they are unable to lay down reaction wood fast enough and big chunks drop off. Either way the size, weight and sail area of the crown is reduced so that gfailure becomes less likely.

 

In the case of this tree, if the crown condition is still relaitively good, some thinning and reduction of the large heavy branches would be advised to reduce the likely hood of branch failure. I dont know what the staining is on the bark, I've never seen it to that extent.

 

I could send you copies of a couple of inspections from this year if you like. Both trees were knackered, one of which was surounding by huge phaelolus fb's but it was still the failure of one of the stems, rather than the whole tree which I was concerned about.

 

After felling some of these pines, I have always been supprised by the relatively small amount of fully decayed wood you see at ground level. I am pretty convinced that the crown will disappear long before the stem collapses in the vast majority of Monterey Pines infected by this fungus, due to the shear mass of their stems.

 

great post

 

Gibbon, i would say from your post a greater understanding than you credit yourself for in the begining of this post:001_smile:

 

Your post illustrates very well the often unique "species specific ecosystems" © Gerrit keizer)the interactions that occur throughout the ecology of trees and their associated organisms. we must all document and record, discuss and promote a full appreciation of these complex co evolutionary relationships, as all of our experiences are valid, in fact priceless as is this one.

 

We all live in very different species diverse areas each with unique opportunities for observations that are vital to a complete picture of the life cycles and eco system dynamics of the trees we are all most familiar with.

 

my experiences innitialy where based on a narrow perspective i thought a wood was a wood, that a fungi was a fungi and that a tree was a tree, but as i learned to see the unlimited diverse nature of the complexities and species dependant interactions and the natural nieghbourhoods of colonies of trees and fungi I started to travel far and wide to see the very often totaly different interactions from one site to another.

 

i would very much like to see this population of trees of which you speak here:thumbup1:

 

i cant stress enough the importance of everybodies, ALL of your observations, everyone on this forum who posts pictures often without realisng thier significance in the big picture are all valued and important contributions to a developing science

 

As you describe, often the colonisation of a fungal "pathogen" (poor word) results in a progressive and retrenching or de foliating scenario that reduces the failure rate, and in many many cases eventually the tree dies standing, this is a far more common occurrence than total failure as a direct result of a colonisation. more often the trees own defence mechanisms bring about increasing dysfunction and lack of vitality and a downward spiral occurs ending in death and then a complex of organisms colonise and bring the food source to earth in a feast of cellulose and lignin upon the forest floor, like maggots to a cadaver!

 

that said, it is the body language of trees that inform our perceptions of the situation, and the deeper the understanding of the body language of trees and decay organisms the more complete and informed we can be in every unique case we encounter, for every tree in every eco system has its unique pros and cons, and species rich and diverse macro and microfungi.