What comes first?

[Nimby]

Not the chicken or the egg but, I think, Beech Bark Disease and Honey Fungus.

 

Looked at this tree yesterday and there are definite signs of BBD and the staining, I presume, is Honey Fungus coming in as a secondary pathogen.

 

There was evidence of another Beech stump that looked as though it had been felled a good few years ago and there are many other Beech trees that are not affected with BBD. It got me thinking, why only this tree? And does anyone think differently as to the problem? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[sloth]

Hard to judge from a pic, but I'd say that's a minor infestation of Cryptococcus fagisuga (woolly scale insects). Any BBD would be secondary to severe C. fagisuga colonization, if it is even present at all - the black exudate could be from early BBD or it could be from Armillaria. You'd need to look a little closer, at the location on tree, and wider context to give a more educated guess...

[treeseer]

Scrape off the black stuff and see where it's coming from.