Ganoderma pfeifferi

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Not laughing atcha mate so much as postulating in public....! It will come as no surprise to learn that annosum root rot occur preferentially on conifers....It has been recorded on as many as 200 different hosts over the years. The one thing which is I think significant is the fact that infection on broadleaved hosts is likely associated with widespread infection within a locality. This because the mycellium is not able to propagate great distances in the soil, preferring root grafts as infection courts. Economically very significant ( forestry). Check out this tho'

 

Heterobasidion annosum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

heterobasidion - Google Search

 

I can confirm a beech in whip has no connection with conifer and has 100% H. annosum

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Would folks agree that this is most likely G. pfeifferi? There were FFBs in two locations - the larger on an old stem wound at around 6m and the smaller one in the main fork of co-dominant stems at about 7m. The shadow on the second picture makes it hard to see properly. I don't remember seeing this before - mostly Fomes fomentarius above ground level on Beech.

 

G australe

[Paul Barton]

Thanks for your reply. What makes you sure it's australe?

 

 

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[Adam M]

Morning! Bit of a conundrum - G. pfeifferi on a beech. Between 2 buttresses. Crown appears normal. No indication of Meripilus. Kids wander under it on a daily basis. One person proposes reduction, the other to fell. I have no experience with this fungus. What are your thoughts/experiences?

[David Humphries]

I haven't yet witnessed a failure due to G. pfeifferi that I am aware of.

So we haven't had the opportunity to see how agressive the decay is across a cross section.

 

David Lonsdale notes from field observations that it can lead to extensive decay in Fagus, and can invade functional wood.

 

Two options

 

Fell it

 

Or investigate the dysfunction further with either Picus, resistograph and/or hammer.

 

Early colinisation and normal/good vitality may offer the further option of reduction to reduce/manage the risk

 

 

Any images of the tree?

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I haven't yet witnessed a failure due to G. pfeifferi that I am aware of.

So we haven't had the opportunity to see how agressive the decay is across a cross section.

 

David Lonsdale notes from field observations that it can lead to extensive decay in Fagus, and can invade functional wood.

 

Two options

 

Fell it

 

Or investigate the dysfunction further with either Picus, resistograph and/or hammer.

 

Early colinisation and normal/good vitality may offer the further option of reduction to reduce/manage the risk

 

 

Any images of the tree?

 

.

 

Seen many a tree down with Pfiefferi, Epping and longdean off the top of my head, others im trying to recount. Oh yes whippendell another,

[David Humphries]

Interesting example of G. pfeifferi discovered at work on Acer.

 

There appears to be no UK record of the association (according to the Fungal Record Database of Britain & Ireland)

 

 

Resistograph readings show some eccentric decay on the side of the fruiting body but nothing to particularly worry about at this stage.

 

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[Kveldssanger]

Nice!! How did you postively ID the fungus - microscopy?

 

Must pay another visit to the Heath soon and spend a whole day exploring.

[David Humphries]

Nice!! How did you postively ID the fungus - microscopy?........

 

Not confirmed via microscopy as yet but I have dispatched our tame field mycologist to take a sample to confirm and then deposit said sample to Kew as it may well be a first for the association noted in the UK.

 

We're fairly confident that it is G. pfeifferi due to the scratchable crust (image 3 above) and colour of flesh.

 

The only one that its morphological features can really be confused with is G. resinaceum

The flesh of resi is a lot lighter in colour to this one.

 

There's also a number of other confirmed pfeifferi's on the site.

 

 

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[Kveldssanger]

Very interesting! Flesh looks akin to G. australe, from that photo. My colleague remarked that because people are paying attention to fungi on trees more these days, there's a high probability that many just weren't looking before and thus associations were missed / are only just being identified. It's also interesting, from reading Stamets' Mycelium Running, that you can artificially inoculate some species with particular fungi in a lab but the same association will not be seen in the field.