David Humphries

Yeah, should be there Paul.

Mycelium which has been cultivated by an Ambrosia beetle, throughout this gallery within a relatively healthy red oak,.........well it was until it fell over last week.

Any birch polypores (as well as the Fomes) on these or other birches in the area Nick? Good to see you posting, trust all is well t'up north?

Another fine Cedar to take a butchers at if in the area of Bury st Edmunds, is the one growing in the remnant of a church ruin on Barton Road.

Cool !

You running the Picus over them?

How inconsiderate............hope Mrs Eggs is ok.

Always been a handy spot to take the lads for a kick about and leg stretch whilst visiting folk in the adjacent Hospital. Some very fine specimens in there. Cedars for goal posts !

Imperfect stage of Kretzschmaria deusta on the end of this beech log.

Rigidoporus ulmarius on this weeping beech at Kew.

Sounding them with a nylon hammer to hear the tone of the resonance to assess wood density is a simple option.

I suspect these are Ganoderma species. hard to determine which species, but the brown flesh is a good giveaway. I've seen plenty of Ganoderma fruitbodies growing from dysfunctional roots away from the base of trees. Have a dig and prod around the location to see if they are directly associated with the tree roots or an old stump under the surface.

That’s a really interesting job, what was the general outcome in terms of state of decay? Assuming they were elm or oak?

Too much of that nasty green stuff around it, can barely appreciate its dead aura

At work this weekend looking at trees and stuff, but had an opportunity to join a group for an hour or so looking at the local soils for the presence of & identifying earth worms. There are 3 main types of earth worm in the UK, the compost worm, (found in the upper 10cm or so of the humus rich layer) the earthworker (which is busy tilling the soil by burrowing down a couple of feet or more) & the root dwelling worms which are seldom seen near or above surface as they're usually to be found down amongst the decaying tree roots. The Earthworker worms (these are the ones that Darwin studied extensively) are the ones that create the worm tents that can often be seen on the surface where they pull down and digest the vegetative part of leaves, leaving behind the indigestible stalks. This is potentially a good way of assess certain aspects of soil health across the site, so although the group were mostly looking at grass areas where there is less compaction we're planning to take it in to the woodland path areas to assess the soil living conditions.