daltontrees

As I came across X. polymorpha for teh first time last year, I can't claim any expertise. And I guess you are just asking about polymorpha rahter than other xylaria such as the very common hypoxolon? Anyway, if it is only saprobic, the question might be not what effect it is having on loss of tensile strength but what's killing the wood and what effect is that having on strength? Is it acting more quickly than Xylaria? Based purely on book knowledge I would be surprised and interested to hear of X. polymorpha is capable on its own of hollowing in an anaerobic heartwood/ripewood environment. And if something more aggressive is doing that to your Sycamore, would it not chemically exclude other fungi, such that it couldn't act as a catalyst in the strict chemical sense? For it to catalyse it would need to precede of coincide with the advance of another decay mechanism. Sorry, that's probably not what you meant by catalyst. Whatever you meant, I wonder if your clients think the Sycamore is going to buck the trend and cure itself. In my experience things, having reached a point of being a identifieable problem, only ever get worse. Then it is a matter of when the quantified extent of the decay makes the loss of strength an unacceptable risk to the occupiers. Over to the Mathecks of this world to answer that one...

Is it one of the Perseas?

I was wondering where RobArb was. Now he's back I've got no chance of getting there first. I would have got that Thujopsis, but I know it as Hiba. Absolutely gorgeous foliage in real life.

Your post has been read over 60 times, but I can see why people have been reluctant to reply, it being your first post and all that, loads of people come on the forum, ask for the same advice that others have asked for loads of times and are never heard from again. I did what you are contemplating doing, didn't get any chances to start with anyone so I started my own business and am now doing very well. But it has been hard. You will have to really want to get into tree work because doing the course is the easy bit you will need determination to chase work and persuade people to give you a chance, Market is full of cheapo gardeners/landscapers/tinks that are undercutting tree surgeons, so bread-and-butter work is not there to be taking on newbies who aren't super-keen.

Dunno, it is glossy enough for Magnolia but the leaves are way too big and broad. Might it be a Ficus?

Even if you get those several tonnes of muck moved very soon, they might need mouth-to-mouth resucitation. Quality topsoil, by the way. They'll make fine fossils. .

I have given up on the Mimosa thing (for now anyway). One more.

Orgel's Second Rule! Never heard it before but I love it already. What would H. sapiens be like if it had been designed by a committee of H sapiens instead of evolution?

Definitely two gobs creating a triangle pointing inthe direction of fell, then as you do the back cut and get closer to teh hinge going there is less and less chance of a twist in the stem jamming the saw. Magic! Wouldn't have tried to do it on the tree in the video, yoyu would have to be just about under the stem to get the gobs in! I think I might have done the Dadio dart much further back towards the butt, degraded or not and with 2 wedges in the top to stop pinching. I had to titter at the 20 second boast, what do you have to jump out of the truck, start the saw while running to the tree, cut it and run back to the truck to press the buzzer and wina prize all within 1 minute? I would have spent a good few minutes sussing out the lean, tension and compression and whatnot so 10 seconds saved on the cut would be trivial, wouldn't it. Aye, you're a long time dead...

I like my loops set solid, but I never thought of just tying fishermans on the ends, don't they work loose during the day? And if they don't, are they not hard to untie at the end of the day when they have been loaded for 8 hours?

Heavy epicormics on lime are the bane of my life, I am surveyig alot of them just now, some of them look like proverbial burst couches. It is tempting to instruct epi removal and resurvey, but I reckon that whether the tree needed to put out the epi or not, by the time it has it adjusts its vascular flows in and around it and that unnecessary removal is a bad idea. I usually poke around with a torch and secateurs and give the butresses and stem a whack with the mallet until I am satisfied that the tree is Ok until next routine inspection. Only if I am not satisfied will I instruct removal and resurvey. Epicormics have the benefit of keeping vandals, firestarters and strimmers away from the tree. DEsparate cases I remove epicormics myself with a hedgecutter and chainsaw and tidy up off bigger wounds with silky. I don't think there's a right answer because the health of the tree is ironically less important to the client than being able to say it is healthy. A bit of a Catch 22.

FAbulous, Mr HCR. Isn't it wonderfoul that when there is a question to be answered someone somewhere has done all the right experiments and someone somewhere else has spotted it and can produce a copy of the results for Arbtalkers at the drop of a hat!

Thing is, I don't actually know what it is I just posted it for a bit of fun. But this Mimosa thing came up recently ina real live ident enquiry on Arbtalk. Mimosa is a scientific name of a Genus, a member of the family Fabaceae (legumes). Acacia is the scientific name of a Genus, also a member of the Fabaceae family, but some of its members are known commonly as mimosa, many are known as wattles. So I don't know if it's a Mimosa mimosa or an Acacia mimosa. I just saw the subpinnate leaves and thought 'mimosa/wattle/acacia", took a few snaps and went back to the apartment.

Meant to add, it is uideirectional and can't be tied in the middle of a rope like a prusik can. The closer to the spliced eye you are the easier it is to do the 3 wraps in the 2nd 3rd and 4th pictures. Sorry about quality of pics, they are fresh from the living room floor with a wet bit of rope that's in from the truck tonight to get dried. Here it is, set. Try it, you'll never go back to a prusik again. A wee tip, when tying youyr future prusik loops for use with a Schwabian, use a bit of cord that's about 10cm shorter than your usual.

The much maligned prisik still has a lot going for it but you don't want it binding during an assessment. We all use a Schwabian. I messed about with klemheist for a while because I got fed up with prusik sticking, bt I couldn't justify going over to the swabian because I thought it would need a fancy wee short bit of rope with two spliced eyes. Then I realised it can be done with a simple double fishermans rusik loop, costing about £2. See attached photos. We had a competition at work, can tie one of these knots and set it in 15 seconds. Miles better than prusik.

Sorry, here it is

Here's the foliage, what do you think now?

OK then, here's an easyish one. Fruit and structure first, as the foliage is a bit of a giveaway. I would add, this is a bit of a poor specimen in terms of foliage density but I took the pictures of this one because of the enormous pod.

I have witnessed this type of thing happening locally, an extension to a nursing home 3 years ago did not directly affect about 40 trees to the front of it but the developer spread excavations and topsoil scrapings around the base of the trees to get rid of the stuff, and compacted it. Within a year about 20 sycamore, ash and limes were all but dead, they then lost limbs in gales the year after and have been now reduced to 4m habitat poles. The effect of the burial was immediate, dramatic, observable and ultimately fatal. Furthermore, and it is a different matter I know, it was foreseeable and the trees should have been protected by the Council through planning conditions. Over 20 mature and mid aged trees lost to current and future generations by collective apathy or ignorance. I will try and get a picture of it for you, it is a sad sad scene and memorial to intransigence. Sounds like you have a similar situation on your hands. In these heavy rains the roots might already have been drowned (and root tissue killed) by newly elevated ground water levels and void-filling by leached particles and compaction. It would be nice to think the damage could be undone by re-excavation but...

Right common name, but I was going on basis of A. heterophylla. It may be a synonym. For someone in Oldham you know your subtropicals! It must be balmy there, maybe I shall holiday there next winter instead of Lanzarote. Another useful scientific name, meaning different leaves, the juvenile ones being different form adult ones. As with Tsuga h. I think Araucaria was hhte name of a tribe in South America that early plant collectors encountered. Whoever it was that brought back A. araucana seems to have given the genus name after the tribe, he got the seeds as the story goes at a banquet given by the tribe. Doesn't matter if it's true, it's a mnemonic peg to hang the hat on. Here's the full tree, not a great specimen. I have a couple more from Lanzarote if anyone wants to have a go at them.

If you are still taking comments here are mine. 1. Problems - unlike Acer pseudoplatanus they are not regularly prone to weak compression forks, and the wood is so strong that they deal with compression forks admirably, even with included bark. They develop very strong tension forks, supporting in later years heavy almost horizontal lower scaffolds. They have their own set of diseases, Rhytisma acerinum, Cryptostroma corticale, Verticillium. Squirrels love them, chewing the bark of young stems especially near forks, which causes decay and breakages and thus upsetting the otherwise balanced canopy shape. 2. Others have already said they are probably filling the gap left by DED. I have been told they are also filling the niche by supporting a good proportion of the species that Elm supported, being apparently quite a good fit. For that they are to be viewed as a stabilising influence on biodiversity. 3. They are everywhere, due to prolific seeding and not being fussy about soil types. 4. They are reckoned not to be native, although there may be rasons for the lack of evidence. However, a tree species can't become native, only naturalised. What was native was fixed once and for ever after the ice age. 5. In parklands they are about 10% of population, not so popular as street trees (4%). In woodlands the percentages are very variable, depending on history and climax species. 6. Local Authorities will argue to keep them in Conservation Areas and TPos as if they were natives, but it depends on the Conservation Area Appraisal. When removed LA will accept alternatives as replacements when scale is n issue and a smaller final height is merited. Great wood, love working with them, you can usually get well anchored from above and can get right out the limbs. The wood is predictable and reliable when judging hinges, step cuts and the like. A concern is always that lower pruning can result in profuse and unstoppable sap bleeding, so I would encourage waiting until late winter before lower limb removals. Overall, any tree is better than no tree and although they are as common as muck and it would be nice to see a bit more variety like A. campestre I think they make an overalll positive contribution to landscape, wood supply, biodiversity.

One more from the Canaries. This one I know because my mother-in-law has verified it from one she had in her garden in Malta.

I do believe you are right! Thanks, I never would have found that. I have found out the name equisetifolia comes from the similarity to horsetail (equisetum), it looks remarkably similar. It must be just the ticket in the incessant drying winds of the Canary Isles.

Thanks for posting the pics, that tree wasa probably about as stiff as a cardboard tube compared to a tightly rolled up newspaper. You advised client well and he /she took right course of action. You'll never know if that has avoided someone being hurt or worse but definitely better safe than sorry. Another tree wil be along shortly to replace it.

There's one for sale in a nearby nursery, has been there for a while. When they finally get a sale they will have to take the roof off the conservatory and crane it out, it and its concrete tub must come in at about 2 tonnes.