David Humphries

Cheers sean, but wish it had been with a better camera !

Sean's still taking fantastic photos and posting them here for us to enjoy. https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/108617-winters-richmond-park/?tab=comments#comment-1604929

Thanks for sharing Gary, looks like a useful resource. Oddly enough I was in Navarra recently and we met a couple of field mycologists from that region, and saw lots of Kretz colonising the beech trees. It will be interesting to compare the species list on that blog with the species I've seen over there on my trips. That's my evening sorted

Possibly T. mesenterica, but should be mindful of a similar species (T. aurantia) which is known to be associated/parasitic on another fungus called Hairy curtain crust (Sterium hirsutum) if the Sterium is underneath then it may be the latter.

Although the fruit bodies were not particularly in evidence on this beech, I suspect this is the soft rot of Kretzschmaria deusta decay with the tell tale psuedoscolratial plates

Wouldn't mind seeing a cross section of the decay if you get the chance Khris

Eeew, not with the number of dogs in this particular park,

Flammulina velutipes (velvet shank) on the base of a horse chestnut probably associating on the dysfunctional wood volume caused by previous bleeding canker. image taken today (Friday the 5th day of January) at 10:45 hrs in an urban London Victorian park after a breakfast of sourdough toast, avacado, poached eggs and bacon washed down with a flat white whilst possibly wearing marks and spencer black boxers.

Should get that seen to what i'm on about would be more a tree huggers resource with potentially thousands of images both historical and contemporary.

I've spoken a few times with the ATF about them hosting an online searchable resource for veteran/ancient tree associated images, but not got very far with it. Issues around funding, software size and who would administrate it. Will get there one day.

Great images Sean, don't think I've seen these before?

Thanks for the offer, but there's no need to bring it over, we do have it here just not many records of it on broadleaves. Probably no legalities on bringing back a non protected fruit body but one should always be mindful of biosecurity, you never know what's lurking in the tubes and context layers inside the brackets.

I would think that those are the red banded polypore, Fomitopsis pinicola. If so, not very common at all on hardwood species in the UK. What's the location?

Bit breezy in north London today

Great set of images Ben, always interesting to watch the rate of decline and habitat creation with these big mature trees. Guessing this tree is in a low target area so being left to decline and dismantle under its own steam?

Certainly looks like P. schweinitzii Ben, very unusual host though. only ever seen it on cherry as a hardwood association, usually on a wide range of coniferous species

Happy to do that Gary, I can even tell you what I've had for dinner that day and what colour my boxer shorts were though some annual species have very long fruiting periods, so a shot taken on a particular day may not be entirely indicative of when they are 'supposed' to fruit.

Various species banging out sporulators on mass Armillaria mellea on lime Amanita muscaria with birch Cyathus striatus on wood chip mulch Panellus stipticus Pleurotus pulmonarius on oak Psuedoinonotus dryadeus on oak Chondrostereum purpureum on beech Laetiporus sulphureus on oak Meripilus giganteus on beech roots Fomitopsis pinicola on fir Pholiota aurivella on beech Gymnopilus junonius Coprinellus disseminatus Fomes fomentarius on beech Flammulina velutipes on lime Feel free to add your own mass fruitings.....

Rubbish in those conditions from my experience, move to the coast

Some useful promo/instructional videos for airspading/soil excavation here...... https://www.airspade.com/reference-library/instructional-videos

Fortunately I don't do the commute every day Gary. My jobs good, but it's not that good Most of my daily movement is around the same few miles in north London, so not so bad, and I've battled a location switch a few times over the years and managed to retain my yard at a location that's pretty much in the opposite direction to the main flow of commuter traffic each morning and afternoon. The American might have been a number of people, arb-talking is a very international pass time these days, but yeah, the 'girdling' reference is a fairly big give away, huh

Snap shot of a random typical day as a Trees Management Officer, at the City of London’s Open Space of Hampstead Heath June 2017 05:10 hrs Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head………. well, turned the alarm off before the wife elbows me in the ribs! It’s early and I’m faced with a coffee fuelled drive in to work from deepest darkest sub-urban Suffolk. In to work for 06:50, unlock the park and office, make a brew, fire up the computer to check the weekends e-mails (already checked on the duty work phone to be honest, but I don’t let the better half know I’m keeping an eye on work at the weekend) The office is a porta-cabin in the Arb yard at a Victorian park in North West London. I’ve been employed here variously since the hazy summer of 1985, at first as a horticultural apprentice, then as a climbing Arb before becoming team supervisor then the job morphing in to a TMO. I run an in-house Arb team of four, we inspect our tree population using Arbortrack within a risk sequencing system. We sometimes cut our trees, we sometimes airspade our trees, we sometimes talk to the locals about our/their trees. Anything tree related, from safety to ecology, is basically our remit. The Heath has approximately 20,000 trees and sprawls out across parts of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Camden & Haringey but the trees have no conservation area or tree preservation orders. 07:30 hrs This particular morning I’m off to Queens Park (one of our satellite parks) over in the north east of the London Borough of Brent to check for the presence of Oak Processionary Caterpillars. There are only a couple of dozen oaks here out of the local 580 tree population, and the critters have been sniffing them out for the last couple of years. During a walk over inspection I pick up on a few new potential Massaria affected London plane branches in the park, so note them for climb inspection and potential removal by the team possibly this week or later in the month. 09:30 hrs Catch a breakfast in the park café, chatting to the (fleet, constabulary and park) manager about vehicle & equipment (mewp) disposal. 10:00 hrs Drive back over to Hampstead. There’s a phone call report of a large branch failure on an Ash near to property on the other side of the heath. Turn up, check on the tree failure (Inonotus hispidus decay at an old pruning wound) Clear the branch failure and note that the tree should go on to our priority tree works list for reduction, as its lost another branch in the past probably also due to I. hispidus. 11:30 hrs Meet up with my boss in Highgate to sign off the team’s end of year performance/development reviews……….blinkin paper work ! 12:00 hrs Back to the yard. I order in some climbing & rigging equipment & vehicle parts for the team Land Rover. Send a few e-mails off. Sample of emails include…… Brent Tree Officer (about OPM) My boss (about a work experience enquiry from France) In house Ecologist (asking me for a fungi ident) My boss (about some training issues) A student (about why dressing parts of one of our trees in tin foil for an photography project, is not the type of thing we would ideally condone) Boss again (about team members sickness trigger level meeting) Grab a coffee 13:30 hrs Catch up with team out on site where they are clearing & lifting a few trees where the horticultural team are building a new stumpery. 14:45 hrs Back to the office. Putting together a list of veteran trees to work on over the next 18 months as part of an Ecology, Conservation & Trees team annual work plan. 16:00 hrs Up to the head office on the Archway Road to catch up with the admin team (about receipts & purchase card issues......blinkin admin) then the boss to have the bi-monthly 121 meeting, talking budgets, work plans and stuff. 17:30 hrs – 20:00 hrs Finish the day up by having a look at a few unread threads at the UKTC, LTOA & Arbtalk forums Chatting on line to an American Arb about Subterranean Root Girdles ! Edit some photographic images for my archives. tree day done..........now where's me beer !

Looks good, ta

Small tree that has me stumped ? Help appreciated

Stick Man https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t09rk/stick-man