Mystery Yew fungus

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

What about throwing into the mix that it may not be of fungal origin at all?

Or could it be a malformed, parasitised P schweinitzii? Possibly Hypomyces aurantius: known to parasitise Ps...

Or Laetiporous; frost damaged/parasitised/anamorphic/combination of. Probably not, just putting it out there for thoughts...

Where's Gerritt when you need him!?

 

thats a good line of inquiry, I dont know what phaeolus looks like when its been Parasitized by this so couldnt say but a definate potential

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

That's Ok, I suppose by now everyone has worked out that you'r a p****

 

i'm impressed with the determined effort though!

 

 

For crying out loud Jonny lighten up, youll give yourself a freakin ulcer:biggrin:

[Le Sanglier]

You've hurt my feelings now....I think you're nothing more than an educated bully.

[JonnyVine]

You've hurt my feelings now....I think you're nothing more than an educated bully.

 

Sorry , I did feel bad after I'd sent it coz the picture made me p**s myself about ten minutes later but Couldn't do anything about it!

[daltontrees]

I was out on survey the other day and I came across three yews with what I thought was this black stuff that you are discussing. here are the pictures. On both the living trees the black stuff was spongy and afrter a hasty inspection I concluded that it was in reality a large build-up of dried exudate, in one case from within an included fork and in the othe case from an inexplicable wound or a very well developed canker. The substance is crumbly and smells a little like the exudate from P. syringae only not as strong and perhaps a little ammonic.

Study the pictures if you like. I had no facility with me to take a specimen home but I can go back and get some if anyone's interested.

The third yew had a thin fungal body at the base and was completely dead from 2m to the top at 7m, despite fairly vigorous growth at the bottom.

[JonnyVine]

Some Taxus "bleed" profusely from small fissures and cracks, the exudate is dark red to almost black and I see it quite often, there is a famous tree in Nevern churchyard that people with faith flock to see, the bleeding Yew" and from my iphone it does look rather like quite a build up of this substance.

 

Don't know about the whitish coloured stuff at ground level though

[sloth]

last pic is of Amylostereum, probably laevigatum. Would explain the die back too...

[sloth]

last pic could be Amylostereum, probably laevigatum. Would explain the die back too...

fixed

[JonnyVine]

Kevin

Please don't take this negatively, but it would be beneficial to understand why you think this is A. laevigatum, as all the (Taxus) cases I have seen have had an associated strip canker and although quite common, it rarely kills large portions of the main stem like this.

 

Best wishes

Jonny

[daltontrees]

Just for avoidance of any doubt, the last of my pictures, with the 'white stuff' is the only one of the three trees that did not have any noticeable canker. The fungus I might have described as resupinate but it was in reality spread like a sheet of tissue over the moss at the base of the tree and could probably have been pulled off intact. It was very thin and quite firm, porous surface, more yellow on the back. The dark area in trhe last picture at the bottom is where I scraped moss away and a little piece of the fungus, The bark was saturated and degraded but I investigated no further as there was no risk to passers by and the tree can be left to die entirely.