daltontrees

COuld be early stages of Laetiporous sulphureus, I say that only because I posted something recently about a rubbery substance within a White Willow that someone reckoned was L.s. BY now all the L.s up here is bleached and crumbling, but maybe yours will develop over the next few days. That wound should allow you to assess amount of decent wood left and whether there is any urgency or whether you can afford to wait and see.

That's impressive up a tree. Did you bore it dogtooth style?

That is helpful to know. It certainly rules out phantom barbecuers. And most environmental causes except insofar as Pat Ferrett has said individuals of the same species can cope very variably with stresses like drought.

Early days, in a few days the caps may be mature and, according at least to Mushroom expert, a coarse distinction can be made between ostoyae having prominent scales and mellea having no or tiny scales (or fibrillose meaning covered in tiny fibres).

It may just be drougght symptoms. Has it been particularly dry and maybe windy at the same time? Does close examination show that the damage is on isolated trees in the hedge? If so and if it is drought damage then there may be some underlying reason why those trees are not doung as well as the others, perhaps as suggested in Strouts something like compaction.

Thieving gits! If they put that much energy, vehicle and ingenuity into running a real business they'd probably do quite well. It is sickening when what you have worked for and built up by honest toil disappears. I had a Husky 346 and a Stihl 271 nicked from my truck 3 weeks ago. Parked at the back of my house and locked. I probably have to work about 3 weeks to make enough profit to buy replacements. When I think that I am working for those thieving scumbags it makes me very angry. Oh to meet them and catch them at it.

Now there's a tree that is cowering like it has been beaten regularly by the wind. It's a joy to see so many 'haws' on it.

If it helps, the official British Mycological Society names are Leucopaxillus giganteus and Giant Funnel. Phillips confirms the synonym C. gigantea. Sad git that i am I still know a bit of latin. Leuco mneans white or colourless. A paxilla is a pillar or a stake. Giganteus, without the benefit of a full classical education, I guess means huge. Nice find. Aparently rare and edible. Wouldn't chance it myself, some of the similar clitocybes are seemingly dodgy.

Quality!

Possibilities could still include ash decline due to agricultural ploughing or the application of herbicides on the agricultural land or spraying of the tennis courts.

Thorns are not always a reliable indicator as here are thornless varieties.

Certainly looks like a hawthorn. Get your hands on a couple of the berries if any remain, squeeze them open. If there's one pip, it will be Crataegus monogyna. Two or more and it is probably Crataegus laevigata.

I have just spotted that the scottish Act received Royal Assent in May. Thanks for nothing Ma'am. It still needs a commencement Order. Nothing being put forward in that respect yet though.

I would guess it has been topped a few years ago, resulting in a decurrent form in a species that wants to be excurrent. As others have said they drop big branches. A combination of not being good with decurrent form generally and a big centre of decay at the previous topping point might mean danger for the nearby houses. Also Poplar has no heartwood, and its core is susceptible to decay or even just dysfunction associated with bacterial infection. Basically Poplars seem to see off infection by maintaining their cores so wet and anaerobic that nothing can survive or flourish there. Open that up and let some air in and all bets are off. As you probably know anyway, you don't need to see fruiting bodies for there to be fungus present and active.

Can't tell from those pictures, everrything's a silhouette. Would need to more too about the environment, is it a roadside tree with lots of hard surfaces? Before Chalara became known as ash dieback disease, ash dieback was a recognised syndrome whereby ash trees would basically die back without any specific disease but due instead to environmental factors. Or it is possible as you say that it is being eaten by some pest or other. But it shouldn't be enough to kill the tree.

Intriguing! Would it be worth damaging one stem a little by removing bark at the midpoint of one of the fresher slits to see if there is a track of a bark-borer?

I'd say it's Pholiota too.

I am just wondering, when you planted this tree did you have a sling round the butt of it at any time, particularly to lift it out of the ground at the nursery or to lower it (rootballed) into the planting hole? That would be one good explanation of the bark damage at the base.

I suspect the answer to this is not simple at all. Perhaps fpor some species the use of seed energy reserves to gain height quickly is a life-or-death adaptation whereas in others the ability to develop photosynthesising capacity very quickly from very little energy reserves (tiny seeds) is everything. Generally growth rate (and I don't mean height, I mean total leaf area) is proportional to temperature but can be inhibited or boosted by respiration which is not so simply proportional to temperature. On top of that there are diurnal cycles that happen, once initiated, regardless of actual light and temperature. To quote from "The physiology of flowering plants" - "... it has scarcely been possible evaluate the effect of any one factor on photosynthesiswithout specifying the status of other factors. The rate of photosynthesis is affected by irradiance, CO2 concentration, temperature, plant water stsus, wind speed and the degree of stomatal opening.The effect of varying any one of these factors depends on the value of the others." So, growth rate is affected by (i) photosynthesis and (ii) the species strategy for converting seed reserves into leaf area, height and other physical attributes. The first is complex, see quote above. The second is complex too and dependent largely on species characteristics. And some plants are predisposed to commence germination at lower temperatures than others and to thrive on short day lengths, and in the case of woody plants to initiate bud-burst at different day lengths. Again I expect it is to do with the circumstances for optimum survival and competition in which the species evolved. So you and your mussus are both right. You could try it next spring, all you need is some pots, a ruler, a thermometer, a sheet of graph paper, some seeds of a variety of species planted in pots every few days.

Thanks Mr Humphries, great video there. If I ever see these again I'll know what they are. I can't seem to find out much more about these slime moulds. I wonder if it's significant that they were spotted on Araucaria and whether you can read anything into their presence that you couldn't from looking at the tree generally? The usual 2 minute unscientific sprint through Google only indicates that the genus lives on deadwood, and that there are a few sites from Australia about it, maybe because of an Araucaria connection?

I have a maul and an axe but today I was using the grenade and a 2.5kg hammer to open up some monster twisted rounds of willow, no maul in the world would have got through them. Sometimes if an axe or maul goes across the rays it sticks, and the point of a grenade is the only thing that can pick out the weakness. A club hammer? Jeez, I wouldn't have any knuckles left!

It could well be P. adiposa. Great to see the same fungus pictured a few days apart. You could totally indulge us and get another pic in a few days time and see if the caps have gone sticky?

The AA book suggests getting some Pseudotrametes gibbosa going on the stump, I imagine the idea is to get it to gobble up the food source to weaken the Armillaria as it is trying to spread to a new host. Spreading will depend on type of Honey Fungus and the species of tree it could spread to, for example A. ostoyea is known for conifers (mainly if not only) and may not spread to adjacent broadleaves. Also a few species are resistant to HF, like Yew or Box Elder.

If you have free wood and room to store it near your back door, you can't beat a stove. Mine's a Dovre 7kW 500, it's tropical in the front room, daren't shut the door.

Yep you can get replacement shafts at Nordic Outdoor for £13.