Tis the season to see Fungi, fa la la la la....

[David Humphries]

David,

It's in good hands then, that is, as long as it's done properly by all arborists identifying macrofungi and the type of woodrot they cause as part of their work on trees and writing reports for their customers.

Going through my database from the 11 years I provided identification services to Dutch and Belgian arborists and tree officers of municipalities, I came across these figures of false identification by the sender of the specimen.

Of all the 974 identifications :

- 117 were of what was supposed to be K. deusta, of which 9 turned out to be Diatrype stigma, 17 turned out to be either Hypoxylon serpens, H. rubiginosum or Hypoxylon multiforme, 2 were FB's of Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma, 1 turned out to be (the very rare) Camarops polysperma, 12 were melanine sheets of Armillaria species and 14 were of non-fungal origin.

- 79 were of what was supposed to be an (necrotrophic parasitic) Armillaria species, of which 4 were of Gymnopilus junonius, 1 was of Agrocybe aegerita, 4 were of Pholiota aurivella and 7 of (the biotrophic parasitic) P. squarrosa.

- 24 were of what should be Meripilus giganteus, of which 5 were of Grifula frondosa and 7 were of what should be G. frondosa, of which 2 were M. giganteus.

- 36 were of either Ganoderma lipsiense or G. australe, of which only 12 were identified correctly and G. australe turned out to be the species in 31 of all cases.

- there were 9 mix ups between Fomes fomentarius, Fomitopsis pinicola, Ganoderma species and Phellinus species, 7 mix ups between Bjerkandera and Trametes species and 4 between Chondrostereum purpureum and Stereum species.

- 19 were sent being Pleurotus ostreatus, of which 2 were P. dryinus, 1 was P. pulmonarius, 2 were Hypsizygus ulmarius, 1 was Paxillus panuoides, 1 was Pholiota populnea and 2 were of Panellus serotinus.

- and there were 7 cases of wrong identification of what turned out to be Lenzites betulina, Phylloporia ribis, Abortiporus biennis (2 x) and Heterobasidion annosum (3 x).

 

So of all specimen about two third was identified correctly by the sender. I wonder what would have happened to some of the trees without my intervention.

 

 

 

I suppose the most important thing here, is whether the senders of the miss Id'd specimens were educated about where they went wrong?

 

Beter to have a host of spotters who are learning their craft than a minority of specialists too elete to to interact with.

 

Ofcourse wrong Id can be & is widespread, & may lead to completely wrong diagnosis with poor results relating to safety & tree loss.

 

I guess thats where the outreach from the likes of the BMC & all the affiliated & non affiliated forums play a significant part in that education.

 

 

 

Really intersting data above, thanks for sharing Gerrit

 

 

 

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[sean freeman]

Some really beautiful pics there David .

 

I really hope there are fewer and fewer Arborists who would simply condemn a tree on the basis of their ID skills on a fungal fruiting body.

 

I like to think (kid myself) that even in the warm northern lands of my home state there are less and less instances when trees are cut down "cause its got fungus":thumbdown:

 

All that having been written...(I know kinda unecessary commentary)...it is interesting how many identifications in Gerrit's experience were wrong esp with species that I am guessing many would feel (unjustifiably) confident about getting right. A lesson there for all (esp me!!!)

[Fungus]

I suppose the most important thing here, is whether the senders of the miss Id'd specimens were educated about where they went wrong ? Beter to have a host of spotters who are learning their craft than a minority of specialists too elete to interact with.

 

Of course they were, so that's why from 1996 on, the identification service was part of an educationial program with seminars and in situ workshops all over The Netherlands and Belgium following and completing a basic VTA course and only was to be used by participants of the mycological courses and workshops, which were a few hundred over the 11 years I was associated with an international tree company, which also intensively worked together with Claus Mattheck and for which I assessed and monitored over 15.000 urban and road side trees.

Every identification was concluded with a report with - if necessary - specific feedback on the species and its (macroscopical) characteristics, effects on the vitality and/or stability of the tree, the measures to be taken and the short and long term prognosis of the tree. And during classes, the participants could bring their fungi in for within group identification.

 

During this period, I for some years contributed to other VTA-courses and to the curriculum of the highschool for Dutch forest engineers with a lecture and/or an in situ workshop and to the European Tree Technician training program with a lecture and an in situ workshop, which I will restart doing next month. And I was invited to give a lecture at the 2001 Tree Care symposium in Cologne on new tree host and parasitic and/or saprotrophic macrofungi combinations and the effects on the vitality and stability of the trees.

 

In 1996, my encyclopaedia was published, followed by my interactive CD-rom in 2000, of which the in 2009 updated version was uploaded to Soortenbank.nl : Paddenstoelen, which is free accessible to the public. I'm now working on my DVD on the Tree Species Specific Ecosystems of indigenous European tree species and the MTA-method integrating "classical" VTA and the TSSE-concept, which will probably be published (in English) beginning next year. Over the years I contributed about 25 articles on macrofungi and their ecosystems to Dutch and German magazines on nature in general, mycology and (forest) ecology.

 

After I entirely moved back to The Netherlands three years ago, I since last year associated with another Dutch tree and (forest) ecological expertise and consultancy company, which organizes mini-symposia on trees and fungi (Minisymposium Bomen en Zwammen) with in situ workshops, to which the participants also can bring fungi to the table for identification.

 

Before I "entered" the Arbtalk Forum, I was a moderator on three Dutch websites including fora with trees and fungi as a subject and I'm a consultant for three local tree foundations in the eastern parts of my home country.

 

So with this "cv" and my mission statement "What is knowledge good for, if it isn't shared with others" in mind, I think I did and still do a bit of (free of charge) sharing of knowledge with the Dutch, Belgian and German arborist world and will do with you English speaking lot all over the world , if you accept my sometimes outspoken opinions, which are never meant to disqualify anyone, unless the outcomes of my field work are challenged without proper cause and without valid arguments and/or (own) research, or by people having no other interest then retailing controversial commercial products.

Edited August 28, 2011 by Fungus

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

 

So with this "cv" and my mission statement "What is knowledge good for, if it isn't shared with others" in mind, I think I did and still do a bit of (free of charge) sharing of knowledge with the Dutch, Belgian and German arborist world and will do with you English speaking lot all over the world , if you accept my sometimes outspoken opinions, which are never meant to disqualify anyone, unless the outcomes of my field work are challenged without proper cause and without valid arguments and/or (own) research, or by people having no other interest then retailing controversial commercial products.

 

well said:001_cool:

 

I havent bought your CD version yet but intend to soon, as for the DVD I cant wait to get my hands on it!

[David Humphries]

Ash collonised by the parasitic Inonotus hispidus at height on the trunk, the parasitic Pholiota squarrosa & the mycorrhizal Laccaria amethystea & perhaps the saprophytic Collybia confluens all interacting on & around the roots & leaf litter.

 

Plus also a small number of brown/grey capped shrooms (in shot of the two P. squarrosa) that I don't know

 

 

.

[RobArb]

Nice shots: thumbup:

 

What did you do to your thumb? Ow!

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[David Humphries]

Nice shots: thumbup:

 

What did you do to your thumb? Ow!

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

 

 

Hammer !

 

This moving home lark is rife with hazard

 

 

 

.

[Fungus]

David,

 

Ash :

1. L. amethystina is an ectomycorrhizal symbiont associated with beech and oak, ash is associated with endomycorrhizal microfungi.

2. The combined photo shows Paxillus involutus and a slimy wax cap or Hygrophorus species (?) with a "pissebed" on its gills, Paxillus involutus is a generalistic and Hygrophorus species are tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi.

3. Collybia confluens = C. peronata.

4. a small number of brown/grey capped shrooms : looks like a Russula, maybe R. amoenolens, which is mainly associated with oak.

 

Conclusion : the Fraxinus trunk's base surrounding soil must be invested with (adventitious) roots of oak and/or beech.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Looking at the root flare alone it was bound to be either perenni or Pholiota attending, nice images.

[Tom Joye]

Interesting image this one, because it is polyporus tuberaster, and a very fine example too. It is distinguished from squamosus by the fact it has a more centralised stipe, rather than the offset one of squamosus.

 

Pucka images guys i love this thread!

 

Been reading through some very old messages and found this one. Thanks for the correction of the ID, Hama. Never heard of P. tuberaster before