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

[Kenty]

Must be the season, came across these in the last couple of weeks in East Sussex.

I thought I would take pics on a weekly basis to see how they develop.

 

This is on an apple

 

This on a Scots pine that failed some years ago.

 

This one has developed in a week and a tree I keep an eye on a weekly basis.

The Oak has basal cavities with old fungal brackets around the other side.

[Kveldssanger]

Look like Inonotus hispidus, Enteridium lycoperdon, and Pseudoinonotus dryadeus, respectively. Nice finds.

[David Humphries]

Still no sign of the mycorrhizal fungi coming out to play, but the last couple of days have been pretty fruitfull on the Heath of Hampstead.....

 

Up first a fine layering of Polyporus squamosus brackets bursting forth from above this birch canker

 

 

Meripulus giganteus erupting from the base of a number of beech trees

 

 

The spectacular Silky Rosegill (Volveriella bombycina) going through its second fruiting of the season on this turkey oak stump

 

 

and more anamorphic Confistulina fruiting beside its more usual teleomorphic version of Fistulina hepatica

(About a dozen brackets popping out from amongst these roots)

 

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[Kveldssanger]

The Volveriella looks lovely! Seeing a lot of Confistulina at the moment, including on a tree in the same location as it appeared last year; albeit much smaller, this time around. Curiously, just above (around 25cm away, and like your finds above) is a true bracket that will be able to sexually reproduce (assuming it doesn't abort). Me and Ali were discussing whether this asexual stage has something to do with the fact that the hyphae are isolated from other hyphal networks, thus making the production of spores via basidia (sexual reproduction) impossible. However, I remember reading in Mattheck's stuff that sometimes basidiospores will produce auxiliary brackets that create spores via conidia, even if from the same network of mycelium where at least two hyphal networks fused, though for exactly what reason I cannot recall. Perhaps an energy-related one, with spore birthing via basidia being more demanding.

 

Do you know if Confistulina can still produce chlamydospores, though? Assuming it can, then the vector of distribution would largely be that of insects.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Kveldssanger

[castanea]

 

Came across this today on a cidrus libani. It is located a couple of feet off the ground. I wondered about whether it was phaeolus schweinitzii.

 

The tree is a mature specimen showing signs of sirococcus tsugae. Over half the foliage has been affected and I believe it will be removed based on this alone and that the fungus is a secondary attack. The second mature cedar of Lebanon we have dealt with recently due to this needle blight. Also two young atlas cedars in the garden showing pink needles too, a beautiful if untimely demise.

 

[David Humphries]

.........Do you know if Confistulina can still produce chlamydospores, though? Assuming it can, then the vector of distribution would largely be that of insects.

 

 

Somewhere deep inside my cloth sack brain, I seem to recall a conversation with Martyn Ainsworth (relatively recently) around the subject of all the major brown heart rotters on oak (Buglosporus, Fistulina and Laetiporus) all having the ability to form asexual spores on what we would call young developing or aborted basidiomata. I think he was suggesting that if the colonised wood becomes a poor host (like from being sun baked due to exposure, for example) then the mycelium can retreat/become inactive. Their chlamydospores (which are pretty thick walled) are able to withstand desiccation and can then get back on track with reprodipuction and recolonise areas within the substrate.

 

Something like that..........I think

 

 

 

 

Any ways, back to that lovely Volveriella

 

 

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Edited September 7, 2016 by David Humphries

[David Humphries]

Came across this today on a cidrus libani. It is located a couple of feet off the ground. I wondered about whether it was phaeolus schweinitzii.]

 

Yep Phaeolus,

 

 

 

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[castanea]

Thanks for the confirmation

[andrew t]

[David Humphries]

Lucidum of the Ganoderma complex.........

 

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