Meripilus on medium beech?

[Ollie Wall]

Thought this might interest some! I think its meripilus sp. Correct me if im wrong. The beech itself was showing good leaf coverage not much, no fb's present apart from a few in the root plate but not obvious without excavation. Tree was located in portsmouths oldest cemetry on one of the main footpaths!

 

Decay went about four foot up the stem but not past the first big union.

Im not involved in surveying these trees just the contractor!

 

Any questions i'll try and answer?

[sloth]

Wow, what a snap! Not a lot of wood left untouched, surprisingly dense leaf coverage. Thanks for posting Was it windy? How far up is slice with the shiny new bar? Why do you say merip? Was the decayed wood soft or hard? Any idea what caused the damage which has occluded on the left in the slice shot?

Sorry, you did say ask away!

[Matthew Arnold]

I am in 3 minds about the decay, point of failure and type of decay present

 

1 - Merip - Would have possibly let go further out and with that amount of decay present it would have been panic fruiting like crazy

 

2 - Ganoderma australe/lipense - Looks similar to Gano induced failures on beech I have seen before. Failure seems to suggest many many years of strimming damage which could have removed forming brackets at ground level. As with Merip, it would have been send small panic bodies all up the trunk and out of the damaged bark.

 

3 - Kretzchmaria duesta - Similar failure to Gano just with more spalting on show.

 

Don't take these as facts just having a stab in the dark.

[Ollie Wall]

The decay was very soft, like sponge, i said merip to begin with because i thought i would have found evidence if it was either gano or kretchmaria. It wasnt that windy tbh, didnt get called in untill the morning so im guessing it happened at night. The pic with the bar is after the first ring was taken of, that disentgrated when it hit the ground though

Edited May 19, 2013 by Ollie Wall

[Ollie Wall]

I would have said mower or strimer damage is quite likely to have caused the original wounding.

[JonnyVine]

Kretzchmaria Deusta

[Graham]

Zooming in on the pics it does look like K. deusta fruiting bodies.

[Ollie Wall]

I was always told that zone lines would always be present if it was k. Duesta ?

Edited May 20, 2013 by Ollie Wall

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I am in 3 minds about the decay, point of failure and type of decay present

 

1 - Merip - Would have possibly let go further out and with that amount of decay present it would have been panic fruiting like crazy

 

2 - Ganoderma australe/lipense - Looks similar to Gano induced failures on beech I have seen before. Failure seems to suggest many many years of strimming damage which could have removed forming brackets at ground level. As with Merip, it would have been send small panic bodies all up the trunk and out of the damaged bark.

 

3 - Kretzchmaria duesta - Similar failure to Gano just with more spalting on show. Soft rot would be a stonelike grey to white brittle fracture

 

Don't take these as facts just having a stab in the dark.

 

good stab if you ask me:thumbup1: but I will guide a little on the panicky thing as you mention it twice above, Its not that common for a larger basidiomycetes fungi to produce an anamorphic fruitbody, in panic or otherwise, there presence helps guide, and is indeed a cause to seriously investigate, as is all decay. However to form a fruitbody propper a sexualy compatible mycelium must be found, also their lack of presence may be for many reasons, them not being there is not a reason to make assumptions simply because of their lack of presence.

 

I too suspect Gano.

 

The decay was very soft, like sponge, i said merip to begin with because i thought i would have found evidence if it was either gano or kretchmaria. It wasnt that windy tbh, didnt get called in untill the morning so im guessing it happened at night. The pic with the bar is after the first ring was taken of, that disentgrated when it hit the ground though

 

This is a preferentially de lignifying fungi, thats why its soft and stringy, Ganoderma Sp, and many others but Gano I suspect here.

 

Ductile failure, selective delignification, less lignin more cellulose remains, like soggy hosepipes.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

in pic two there is an area of what appears like brown rot, I suspect this is a type of soft rot which in beech is known to me only so far from Inonotus cuticularis, Hispidus has a similar alternative decay mode, besides its more often white simultaneous decay. Schwarze say its a mode of decay that enables Hispidus to by pass reaction zones while te tree is dormant. ( fungal strategies of wood decay)