Meripulus Giganteus on Fagus Silvatica

[Gareth jones]

This is just for general interest really.

 

I have read about, but have never come across Merip before, so as you can imagine I was a tad dubious when I saw it fruiting around the entire base of the tree.. As I understand the fruiting bodies to be relevant to where the decay is taking place. Anyhow, without anything but a visual assessment the tree was removed.. Much to my surprise though, I didn't come across any "White-rot" in the lower part of the stem... Have a look at the photos and see what u think..

Crown die-back with little green foliage, possible drought, possibly other funghi in contention?

During removal

Last piece

Decay pattern..

Ignore the colour of the fruiting bodies, the owner of the house sprayed fungicide on them. . . (To what affect, I'm not sure.. Would it stop the spores spreading? Is Merripulus in the basidomycetes group?

[APC]

Imagine the large proportion of decay would be at or below ground level; the roots could have been totally buggered. There's one with FB's around the entire circumference on a golf course near me, with Ganoderma 2-3' above. I'm waiting for that to go down!!