Kretzschmaria deusta

[Matthew Corran]

The cross section showing the black demarcation lines.

 

[Paul Barton]

In between buttresses of a large Copper Beech - beneath a pronounced graph line. My initial reaction is immature K.deusta but there is no blue-grey colour on the surface which makes me wonder (and hope) that it may just be a mould developing on the surface. What do you reckon?

 

The host and location certainly fit the bill...

[Paul Barton]

I should add that there was also some tip-dieback at the top of the crown so something's certainly up.

[treeseer]

Looks moldy from here.

 

Maybe have a probe or a poke or a scrape to see how far down it goes?

[jonnygurkha]

Currently carrying out a survey on about 100 trees bordering a busy b road. Some amazing trees but sadly 2 of the beech have kretz. Is it worth getting a tomograph survey or is it too late by the time you find the fruiting bodies? (A3 folder for scale)

 

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[David Humphries]

Any close ups of fruiting bodies?

 

 

Imo, the fluting would suggest an advanced colonisation of decay.

 

However, I'm managing (reduced) trees with Kretzschmaria that are perfectly healthy from a vascular point of view.

Being reduced they are inherently more stable than unreduced.

 

Really depends on target occupancy/frequency and resource for continued monitoring and further management.

 

 

.

[jonnygurkha]

Sorry David, my phone camera is a bit crap. The fruiting bodies were from ground level up to about 1m. Coal like and black crumbly. Here is the second giant beech with kretz and a bracket I will need to id later. I think this tree is a goner.

 

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[sloth]

To expand on Davids reply I would add don't waste money on a tomograph where kretz is the cause for concern. Due to its soft rot decay type a tomograph won't pick it up until well after the woods tensile strength is gone.

 

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[jonnygurkha]

Roger that, thanks sloth

 

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[Tom D]

We cleared up the aftermath of a kretz related failure last week, the tree was huge and looked very healthy, the infection was at about 8m up and led to a calm day failure of two huge scaffold limbs across a road and pavement, (maybe 8 tons of material) luckily no one was hurt. It happened at 8:00 in the evening. I suspect it was the ever increasing weight of a lot of beech nuts that tipped the balance.

 

These pics don't show much as we had got to down by the time I took them, there is around 20 ton in the tree, 4 big trailer loads of timber and 18 cube of chip. Check out the hole left and the clear suppression of the neighbours to gauge the size.

 

I think in general a kretz beech should be regarded with suspicion.