Heterobasidion? Merip? on Q alba

[treeseer]

They look more like fronds of merripilus to me

Me too; that's the tentative ID that went in the report. Always open to change though...

[Arborowen]

Merrip unlikely to be hanging about for photos this time of year. I might be wrong though. There is a big clump of something under that text box. If it is merrip what were your recommendations? Always a tricky one. Usually I recommend: fell, grind, dig out to 10m, burn soil, sell house and change name. Solved

[Chris at eden]

Me too; that's the tentative ID that went in the report. Always open to change though...

 

I also agree with what it looks like. I left an old Merip frond in the boot of my car over the weekend a couple of years ago and one thing I can say for sure is, it didn't smell sweet by Monday!!!

 

I can see why you posted it mate. One for Tony or David this one.

 

[Chris at eden]

Merrip unlikely to be hanging about for photos this time of year. I might be wrong though. There is a big clump of something under that text box. If it is merrip what were your recommendations? Always a tricky one. Usually I recommend: fell, grind, dig out to 10m, burn soil, sell house and change name. Solved

 

[10 Bears]

I would have gone meripilus giganteus too.

[David Humphries]

The issue that puzzles me with the images, is around the spore colour.

 

I would agree with a lot of the remarks pointing to Meripulus as the clumps appear to resemble desiccated fronds of M. giganteus.

 

Both M. giganteus and Laetiporus sulphureus have white to cream coloured spore.

 

I'm farily confident that what we can see here in the images (on the surface of the vegetation) is of a cocoa colour, similar to what we more commonly associate with the Ganoderma spore.

 

(you can see where the spore has been partly rubbed off on the leaves on the second image)

 

I'm not suggesting these are any of the Ganoderma complex.

 

Its possible that what can be seen is not actually spore but from my experience in the field I see a lot of examples of this occurence where the exiting basidiospores dust and coat the nearest surfaces (leaves/bark/fence posts etc....).

 

So due to this I'm going to sit on the fence with this one Guy as I know not of any other similar species that might fit the bill, certainly from this side of the Atlantic. Chris Luley doesn't offer up any alternatives in his US Wood Decay Fungi Manual.

 

 

 

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[Paul Cleaver]

I thought the fronds look too thin for meripilus -

[treeseer]

Thanks; I tried to shake spores out but the conk was generally degrading, so maybe that was the brown dust, not the spore colour.

 

I would agree with a lot of the remarks pointing to Meripulus and what Schwarze's anatomical notes describe matches this; short fibrous stalk, concentrically zoned and radially furrowed, grows like a fan, ah poetry of precision!

I'm farily confident that it's not Ganoderma; the top is too rough, wrong shape etc.

 

3 calls to remove this vet already, so don't bother with that reaction.

 

20% reduction of sprawl is specified, with root care and support. But Merip has a rep as a sapwood scourge, so I need to monitor the fungal strategies of tree and fung as Merip tries to spread around the stem. How can I do this noninvasively yet convincingly?