sean freeman

I think Janey is quite right, the loss (obstruction) of photosythates moved past this girdling is not going to be a major issue for the root system since there appears to be ample vascular connectivity elsewhere. The xylem function should not be hugely impacted (based on the pics). Long term (not sure really what time frame I am alluding to myself here!) I would expect that the non-occluded injury may present a structural issue for the branch.

Fabulous pics...having spent many a weekend walking and canoeing up and down the mighty D in my yoth' wondering just where abouts those piccies are taken...south of the Glossop Rd?

Good on ya Tony, I tip my hat to you sir:thumbup1: Remember for each single person who is exposed to greater understanding and knowledge you are actually reaching (through them, and all the connection with others that they have, friends and work colleagues) a much greater number.

I'm still thinking Phellinus badius the darker colouration is not what I expected though this F/B had been on the ground for quite some time and its tissues have become home for a range of insects as you point out...Phellinus sp should be more cinnamon coloured though there certainly is variation in that general of most general descriptors! To be honest if its not Phellinus sp I have no idea what it might be, pretty confident it is P. badius.

When I brought it home last night there were lots of slugs sliding over it and a number of small beetles...it was too dark to photograph (the camera I have at the mo has no flash:blushing:) Come the morning the conk was alive with very active small ants, I assume they were inside it but don't really know...we have lots of ants here so it is almost possible they 'found' the conk and were in the process of evicting the residents.

The length of the pore layers was something that surprised me, I thought there would be a great many shorter layers. In places the length exceeded 50mm, you can also clearly see the sticks which have been incorporated into the F/B.

So I'm back up north for three weeks (one week already gone!!!) and went back to find my monster bracket...somewhat surprisingly it was still there, carrying it to the car soon convinced me that thoughts of sending this down south to accompany me to future presentations was just wishful thinking...it weighs a ton (well okay 12kg to be accurate). I got it home and cut it in two, it took some doing (yes thankyou I know...not anywhere near as fit or strong as I used to be:001_tt2:) Had to clean it up since the saw smeared all the features I was hoping to reveal. Anyway nothing too dramatic other than the huge length of the spore tubes, and the interesting history of the bracket's development.

(There's no green envy smilie....) You lucky pups.... sometimes its frustrating watching from afar...take loads of pics and be sure to describe your trip..perhaps a vid???

Now I'm sure there are parts of Oz where correct pollarding is being done, I just really have not seen any great examples....so when I came across this beauty in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne I just has to take some pics. Bear in mind this species is considered a weed here....it has responded really well to the work, and the flowering I suspect would be magnificent.

I agree with Tony, we have similar problems amongst other species over here the only way to be certain is via the microscope, and TBH for me that means getting someone in the Qld Mycological Soc to run their beadies over it. Maybe in a year I'll have access to a scope.

You should put that one up on the ATF facebook page they were chassing pics of trees eating stuff a while back.

Yes it was odd wasn't it thought the little beauty would appeal to Ted, I had a double take myself. To be honest only the pin oaks and a couple of the Algerisn oaks really looked happy, don't know why...the effects of years of drought perhaps, they are very young trees (relative to yours!!!) so given better conditions I'm sure they can grow through this bad patch..I've only been to the Gardens twice so perhaps I'm drawing a long bow. They would certainly be getting better care in the gardens than on the streets of Melbourne.

Wind loading was my thoughts too however not really all that likely it is an area called the oak lawn completely surrounded by older larger oak canopies...not impossible just very unlikely to be wind related. Wish I could have ID'd the tree no plaque and I'm afraid I see so few oaks these days.

Saw this lovely spiral rib on an Oak (don't know the species sorry) in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne...and near the base of it was a bubbling frothy flux which was providing a feast for what looked like fruit fly (Drosophila sp) and a great many ants.

Your post about the Japanese Hornet reminded me of this news story from a week or so back.. Wasps drop ants to take their food - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Sounds kinda funny cunjures up all kinds of imagery...and the video lives up to all that... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DILNPkA9vwY]YouTube - Ant dropping behaviour by wasps[/ame]

Some beautifully defined zone lines in post #603 very neat!

Really good advice, though of course you would have a broad and inclusive introduction for those wanting to gain greater understanding...and that can in itself (the intro) become a hugely useful and popular aspect of what you are delivering. This is certainly the case with educating presenters like Dr Francis Schwarze.

The memorial is being retained just relocated, when it comes to your definition of progress...well thats another matter IMO...however I just wish we could get as much respect for some of the living memorial avenues down here.

What a great article and wonderful bit of research, We have Marasmius cinnamoneus in many of our woodland and forest communities here and one of my favourite presentation tricks is to take a totally dessicated clump of fruiting bodies one or two days old and well and truely dried out and to revivie them by placing them in a small dish of water. The ability to rehydrate itself is (apparently) quite a well known characteristic of this very hard working wood litter digester. I have often wondered if this capacity (and yes I know there are other fungi that also can do this within limits - Marasmius can apparently rehydrate several times in the ground layer before its tissues are beyond 'repair') gives M. cinnamoneus an advantage over other potential competitiors that might be knocked out of the niche by dry conditions.

The Somerset Standard is reporting that the thorn is reshooting, one-nil to veteran tree (at least it would seem for now! ;>P ) There is fresh life in Glastonbury's Holy Thorn, which began to show new buds this week.

That is a beautiful piece of growth...what I would give to see a microtome through the tissues there....

Hi Tony, others have given you some great advice so I will just add what has helped me, although I am not what might be called a shrinking violet when it comes to the spot light. (Based on your numerous wonderful posts I suspect I talk about very similar topics to those you are thinking about covering) Pick a very simple aspect of the topic you are going to present, if the prospective audience has a particular interest then this can be a pretty obvious choice. If the audience does not have a single interest the you choose which element you wnat to introduce them to...could be a particular fungi and tree species relationship, could be a particular management approach. There is no way the breadth of the subject for which you have so much passion can be done justice in 40-60 mins especially if you want to let people ask questions at some point. If you are using powerpoint choose some of your favourite pics, ones you know inside and out (so you know the 'back story' behind the tree/woodland and its associates). On the topic of powerpoint some do's and don'ts I have learnt... Have a back up plan for when the powerpoint lets you down:blushing:..no power pc craps out, room too bright etc.. etc... Generally my back ups are timber discs sections and radial sections, fruiting bodies of my fav fungi some simple visual experiments that can be carried out on soils with jars of water (clay soils and reactivity) some kit - nylon sounding hammer is a fav (someone else already mentioned that) and butchers paper and big marker pens...lots of halls have a white board or even a black board hiding somewhere. Don't have slides with lots of text...simple short messages fine but no paragraphs...you want them to be listening not reading Don't talk to the screen...glance at it (if you can't have a display on a laptop infront of you) then talk to the audience. I really hope you do decide to jump in and present...I think once you get over the bad experience of the Bestmans speech you'll let yourself enjoy connecting with others sharing your wonderful insights and perspective on the natural world.

Thanks for the compliment Tony, the many posts that both you and David have made over the past few years have helped me feel much less isolated...and not the out of balance loon that it seemed I was compared to 90% of other Arborists (not for one moment suggesting that I am not a loon, certainly I am...but not-I like to believe-because of my obsession with the critical links between older trees and everything else). I am very envious of your encylopedic knowledge of the fruiting brackets you encounter in your work and 'free' time. More and more of my life seems to be spent in front of a computer screen and less and less doing what I love tramping around bumping into special old trees and their associates.

Some close up shots of Ganoderma lucidum found growing on a small Mango ~ Mangifera indica except the cross section (apologies about the poor quality of the shot its from a few years back) which was growing on a dead Poinciana ~ Delonix regia

As I have pointed out in this thread there are some interesting variations between the fungi we find here in Oz…specifically here in Queensland…and fungi encountered in Europe and even in cooler climate zones of Australia. This next one is a great example of that; Ganoderma lucidum. For many, many years I was incorrectly calling these fungi Ganoderma resinaceum, partly because of the preponderance of that fungi in the literature discussing Ganoderma sp, and partly because I had not at that time read any text specifically dealing with Queensland wood decay fungi. In Queensland we do not have any records of G. resinaceum it is a fungi that occurs in colder climates of Victoria and Tasmania but not here in the tropics. Just to confuse matters even more…we do have two other fungi which have macroscopic similarities to G. lucidum but microscopic differences…hence the nomenclature “cf” (confer or compare with). I want to be very clear that without training in the use of microscopes and without access to microscopic confirmation I can only make suggestions about the accurate ID of the fungi in the pictures below; what I think is Ganoderma lucidum might well actually be Ganoderma cf lucidum. The other Ganoderma sp which has some similarities to G. lucidum at least during the immature stages is Ganoderma P.Karsten species. So having thrown all that into the mix here are some pics of what I believe to be G. lucidum, a wood decay fungi that I my experience is like Phellinus robusta in that it does not easily breach the barrier zone when that active chemical and physical response to dysfunction is triggered within the wood tissues of the tree. The fruiting bodies were found growing on Delonix regia , Ficus benjamina, Mangifera indica and Acacia sp...as I am sure you guys are aware Ganoderma sp are fungi that can and do colonise both native trees and exotics. Close ups to follow...