fungi id

[justin131]

growing on elm. any idea?

[Gary Prentice]

Polyporus squamosus - Dryads saddle. saprophtic intense white rot, forming caviyies but can lead to part(s) failure.

[Island Lescure]

Dryad's saddle, Polyporus squamosus

[justin131]

thanks guy

[Kveldssanger]

Nice shot.

[daltontrees]

Polyporus squamosus - Dryads saddle. saprophtic intense white rot, forming caviyies but can lead to part(s) failure.

 

A wee addendum, P.squamosus is more parasitic than saprophytic, referring to Fungal Strategies of Wood Decay in Trees ... s.3.3.6.3 p. 89. I'd say it's not going to leave a big wound (or pruning cut) on an Elm alone till it's done, although it may take a while.

[Gary Prentice]

A wee addendum, P.squamosus is more parasitic than saprophytic, referring to Fungal Strategies of Wood Decay in Trees ... s.3.3.6.3 p. 89. I'd say it's not going to leave a big wound (or pruning cut) on an Elm alone till it's done, although it may take a while.

 

I'll admit I took the spelling and info off the app (the nearest reference source I had to hand) but was a little surprised myself at the categorisation.

 

Something else for some further reading.

[David Humphries]

A wee addendum, P.squamosus is more parasitic than saprophytic, referring to Fungal Strategies of Wood Decay in Trees ... s.3.3.6.3 p. 89. ...........

 

I wouldn't necessarily agree with this Jules.

 

Although both Schwarze and Butin appear to suggest that the saprophytic nature of P. squamosus on dead stumps and other dead wood volumes is not as common as its supposed Parasitic nature, I think this is perhaps their observations from in-vitro studies and from a European (specifically German) field perspective.

 

My own observations (though I'm not suggesting that fruiting is definitive proof) is that the species is very much a sap wood exposed strategist and that it 'parasitises' dead/dysfunctional volumes (wounds). It does have the ability to extend through the damaged xylem/sapwood at a relatively slow rate but more often acts as a saprophyte.

 

The above is partly why I 'categorised' it as Saprophytic on the Arbtalk Fungi app.

 

Perhaps not strictly a scientific view but one brought together from exploring a number of texts from the above authors (also David Londsdale) and from witnessing a significant number of examples in the field across a variety of tree species and situations.

 

I don't apologies for the gratuitous level of images below as they give context to the post.

 

All are either on completely dead standing trees, old pruning and/or storm damage wounds and stumps/detached logs.

.

[Kveldssanger]

Some of those photos are incredible!

[daltontrees]

David, I don't have the experience to question either you or Schwartze/Butin, but I have come form a few limitd observations over a good few years on Aesculus and Acer to correlate P.squamosus with fairly rapid deterioration of stems at would positions leading to big big failures and no evidence of any fungal action and no other explanation than progressive weakening by P.s. Whether this is weakening by the killing and consumption of living wood arund the wound or by destruction of the already dead wood I really can't say.

 

But P.s fruiting seems to be a precursor to failure, whatever the strategy.