Collybia fusipes - Observations

[David Humphries]

It failed during a storm in May 2010

 

I don't recall seeing the fruiting of Collybia fusipes around the base prior to the failure but on inspection the structural roots showed evidence of what looked like a white type rot.

 

The remaining stump has regularly shown Cf fruit bodies since.

 

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[David Humphries]

That'd be great, any others in line for the investigative treatment or post failure disection?

 

we've disked up a few of the decayed roots from the oak that had failed.

 

As per text, the decay is mostly confined to the sap wood leaving the heart largely intact, but as the roots taper the undecayed heart volume decreases and the affected volumes increase, probably leading to higher potential for failure at that point.

 

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[David Humphries]

Although not seen fruiting on the oak failure (which should be remembered that by itself the lack of Fb's it not evidence of whether a fungal species is present or not) we did note a thin black sheath around one of the root specimens. This may be the melanine plaque of an Armillaria sp (similar to the sheathing on rhizomorph bootlaces)

 

So its pronbably safe to asume that there is the addition of other pathogens to consider when looking for 'the player' in a trees vascular & structural demise.

 

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