daltontrees

Wow, at 1.5 metres diameter this tree would be officially classified as 'Ancient'. As such its chances of recovering from a big stem wound are somewhere between zero and zilch. I can hear the Inonotus hispidus banging its cutlery on the table already! Take alittle off and revisit ina few years. It's a lot harder to put wood back on than take it off.

Also worht considering whether the tree's active growth phase is the really important thing. Surely trees metabolise, even slowly, in the cold and in so doing could be combatting infection and decay even though not actively growing? Thye could theoretically keep up with fungal infection even when dormant. Otherwise we'd all die of a common cold first time we go to sleep?

Machines are not clever. The person who programmes them to do what they are intended to do is clever. Processes are not clever, The person who created the process to do what it was intended to do is clever. It might be an arbirtary distinction to make, but 'clever' requires reasoning and deduction, and appreciation of cause and effect. It seems to rely on experience, memory, communication, perception and, as far as emotional intelligence is concerned, emotion. Trees don't do that. Machines don't do that. Some animals do. Some people do. But not trees. I amn't having a go at anyone, I just really think that a better understanding of trees comes from a better understanding of their mechanisms rather than the tempting alternative of assuming that they or their processes are in some or any way clever. Once I get into trying to understand trees, and what they achieve to survive and procreate as non-thinking beings, I am really gobsmacked by them. It is an appreciation that for me surpasses all other perspectives of trees. It is a wonderment at the world and the universe that I hope I never tire of. I'm not especially clever but I am delighted just about every day of my life to be able to appreciate all these things and to find something new that adds to my understanding. Seeing a tree that is of a speciae that has evolved to overcome the challenges of its environment and seeign that as a consequnce of evolution adds a 4th dimension to a tree's beauty... time. Measured on a scale of literally billions of years of evolution's inefficient circus of a laboratory. That alone fascinates and humbles.

Trees aren't clever! Over a million years of small and large mutations, successful mutations are rewarded by making it to reproductive maturity and pass on the successful genes. Tree speciae adaptations may appear clever but they are really the result of millions and millions of unplanned trial-and-error experiments. Basic Darwinian stuff. It doesn't make trees any less wonderful, but they aint clever. The fast living willow that has offspring with a genetically controlled higher dedication to would compartmentalisation are out-competed compared to their brothers and sisters that genetically put all their energy into fast growth. Killjoy :-( PS willows and the other fast growers are very good compartmentalisers of basal wounds, but not of branch wounds. Compare with lime which is the opposite.

Hornbeam is soooo 2014 (or was it 2013?). Move on! Mahonia and Berberis are so closely related that some taxonomists think they are the same genus or sub-family. There is even a mahonoberberis. So everyone's right. Except Mr. Hornbeam.

Not quite right, because the area of elongation and cell division at the root tip is also meristem. Plus there is a third kind of meristem called 'residual'. And the apical meristem is also responsible for producing lateral outgrowths that eventually become side branches and leaves. Here's how they fit together. 1. Primary meristem produces elongation of stems and roots and commencement of side growths in stems (not in roots). 2. Residual meristem assorts the new cells into final shape, strands and layers. THEN Permanent tissue is formed from this structure 3. From the permanent tissue, cell division recommences (secondary meristem) to produce the vascular and cork cambium layers that are responsible for the next year's annual increment and bark production. And so to goes on, till you have a tree. Shortest possible answer is meristem is a plant growth point.

It might help to ignore the trees that have lots of holly seedlings beneath and around them. They are almost certainly female.

PS, by host G.f. seems a better match than Meripilus

Isn't 'hen of the woods' Grifola frondosa?

Eh? Don't you mean 'dioecious'?

Junk! I'd neither use it nor have it on my conscience that I sold it on to someone else to use. Except the saw, I'd pay a couple of quid for that, but not +£35 for delivery.

I'd say F.p is right for first one . I don't get C.c-g for second one, that species' leaves are near oval. If you are sure it isn't C. monogyna, try opening a fruit and seeing if there is more than one seed inside. If so, it could be C. laevigata.

Also see current thread about snappiest species. Ailanthus currently in the lead, and I wouldn't disagree.

Foliage looking like M. acuminata.

Found a good example on Forsythia yesterday in Lancaster, unfortunately no camera handy.

It keeps your harness on when you've got a 660 clipped to it...

I'd recommend the Ginkgo. You can actually feel it working at the breakfast table after you take it. If youyr ads are cold you either need to stop them getting cold (gloves, which I don't like when climbing), tolerate the cold (not an option with vibrating machinery), reheat your hands from the outside (handwarmers, tea, certain 'exercises'), increase your overall temperature by vigorous exercise or heat your hands from the inside. When up a tree the last one is the only one for me. You need vasodilation. There are vasodilators (things that open up the capillaries in yor extremities) but I think you need a prescription. But ginkgo is a very effective natural vasodilator. And (you have to try it to believe it) it helps you think too because it improves blood flow to the brain.

I am just speculating but it sounds like it is a noun used as a verb rather than the other way around. It may therefore just be an old word for stool, which is basically the bit of the original stem from which coppice stems are allowed to grow.

Do Palm Tree Roots Grow As Big As the Palm Tree? | Home Guides | SF Gate

They're not woody. And they don't branch. So they're technically not trees.

The first ones, no. The second ones are too far gone to indentify.

Feel free to blow our minds about why you disagree with this then. Dead Wood | Trees for Life or this Forestry Commission - PDF Document - lifeinthedeadwood.pdf or this The RSPB: Advice: Dead wood for wildlife or this http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEQQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.english-heritage.org.uk%2Fpublications%2Flan-dead-wood%2Flan-deadwood.pdf&ei=EFR7VM6qJMjtaIWjgNAN&usg=AFQjCNEwKnNsYZdfVg65Mfe36aE_bSCx4g&bvm=bv.80642063,d.d2s etc. All free, and found on Google in, let me see, 0.45 seconds. 100 words or less, mind. Thank goodness for people like DH who are dedicated, experienced and enlightened and informed enough to remind us often that retaining deadwood is at least worth considering.

Just saw 15 Norways in a row looking just like that yesterday in East Kilbride. And 1 in Wales today.

I surrender, I don't know what I am talking about.

I haven't made any assumption, I have just observed. The trees are dying one by one in sequence and when one gets felled by the Council I check and sure enough there are A.m rhizomorphs. The trees are dying standing, cambium seemingly killed ina 2 year period. Coincidence?