Any ideas??

[Mr P]

[David Humphries]

Interesting that it doesn't appear to have failed at the roots

 

 

 

 

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[alliaria]

Doesnt look like Phaeolus is the cause of that failure to me.

[Matthew Arnold]

Doesnt look like Phaeolus is the cause of that failure to me.

 

I was think the same thing. It looks like it has cracked in the past and a bit of rot has set in as well as a weak point. But that failure has got alarm bells ringing as got a Scots Pine with a lean and is hollow on a public open space.

[daltontrees]

The pictures do suggest an old vertical crack which has either admitted decay or has been the result of hollowing then buckling. The ddecay doesn't look like it goes below the bottom of the old crack, so it's most likely the former.

 

I'd love to have seen it go, my guess would be that wind forces re-opened the old crack and extended it rapidly out through the stem and with that lean and hollowing it would easily and quickly propogate down to the base on the other side. It migh have been enough to pull the stem to the left (looking in the direction of fall) slightly, accounting for which house got hit despite the lean direction.

 

Lucky no-one got hurt.

[David Humphries]

Personally I'm more leaning to the possibility that the Phaeolus has gained entry to the trunk via root colonisation, causing (what looks to be) the cavitation & brown rot of the heart of the trunk. (Though it could perhaps be the reverse ) This could then explain the primary reason for the crack & evident discolouration at the edge of the fracture.

 

The tree then just snapped out in what was described as 'hurricane' conditions, due to a thin residual wall thickness.

 

It certainly looks to be an old association of Phaeolus within the tree

 

 

 

 

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[Mr P]

Unfortunately I didn't get to go up and have a look the pics were taken by a friend up there. I find it quite odd that it split at a near 45degree angle to the lean and it was a heavy lean.

 

 

In this picture the house in the background is the one the tree was leaning directly over. Must be a combination of wind direction and areas where the rot had set in I guess.