David Humphries

No fungi associated with this one yet but it was the result of a pretty Big Bang last night which sent woody debris spraying around an 80m radius.. Totally destroyed this mature oak...............but not the Oak Processionary Moth Caterpillars that were still happily going about their business this morning !

I don’t think these are fruiting bodies. They look woody to me. Perhaps cankered burrs.

Some big arsed London planes in Russell Square. Imagine LB Camden are all over the branches from inspection POV. Would be interesting to know if the placement of benches is random or strategic in terms of location outside or under canopy branches.

Oh I don't know, they sometimes have interesting guests😁

Yeah I saw that too Gary, not entirely sure on what the Americans do in terms of Massaria management but the article suggests the tree hadn’t been inspected for almost 2 years and you have to wonder about the bench being sited directly under low lateral spreading London plane branches.

If you do see Pete this week, could you share this image with him, I spoke briefly with him about how the foresters in the Basque cover their fresh (pollard) cuts with moss matts. He said he hadn't heard of it before and seemed quite intrigued.

Yeah Pete was there sharing his vast experience helping with the guided walk and supporting the current incumbent.

shame, you missed a good one, though a little over subscribed (62 attendees i think) We were there looking at other issues like deer impact/management, doormice populations and end product so didn't actually focus on ADB for too long. I don't remember specific replacement species being mentioned (may have missed it as I have a tendency to wonder off) but as you'll know species diversity is quite key to woodland management and associated biodiversity so rather than move toward a monoculture of hazel there will be the opportunity to replace ash with something else, lime, willow, field maple, alder......other

Fascinating day with the Ancient Tree Forum, Suffolk Wildlife Trust & Small Woods Association at Bradfield Woods yesterday. There for talks on Suffolk's woodland history and pollarding/coppicing and then a guided walk learning about the challenges of managing an 800 year old coppice woodland. Significant concerns at lack of resilience to ash die back. The guys that work the wood think that ash will take a 90% hit in the next 10 years. Will be interesting to see which species gets planted to replace the ash and supplement the hazel in Bradfield over the next couple of decades.

Yeah relatively unusual to find that type of fruiting in an agricultural field as the mass of mycelium in the soil would be too disturbed to grow and put on such large fb’s. Agreed, eating unknown species is not clever.

Sizeable fruitbodies. Not sure they are ‘giant puffballs’ (Calvatia gigantea) as they tend to be pure white and not scaly/dimpled like these. Possibly another puffball species. Sounds daft, but I take it that you looked underneath and ruled out they had gills? Did ya take one for the pot ?

Which tree species?

Been a Spurs fan since the eighties and have been to a couple of cup finals with them (best being ‘91 FA cup) but still coming to terms with how the actual fuch they are in the biggest club competition in world football. Poch is a pretty good gaffer and there are a few pretty decent players in that squad but Champions League Final?!? Been a great run from the lilywhites. Liverpools result was epic too, really enjoyed that piece of theatre. Uefa not gonna like having ‘potentially’ 4 English finalists in their two cup competitions. Suspect we will see a change in the EPL coefficient in the next couple of years.

Hard or soft bracket? former G. pfeifferi latter G. resinaceum Think it looks more the latter