Fungus

whats going on here (we took this padus down as a result)

Rob,

Any signs of silver-leaf disease ?

Something of a first find for me today.

We felled this Chestnut today. At first, had apportioned it's demise to Bleeding canker, but the evidence of Armilaria being the primary culprit is overwhelming.

David,

See and compare the last four photo's of : http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/members/fungus-albums-rhizomorphs-armillaria.html

whats your view on Biochar providing 'accomodation' for mycorrizals

Of Terra Preta or Biochar, no effects on the development of endo- and/or ectomycorrhizae as elements of (already present) natural soil food webs and habitats have been researched and reported, other then that natural soils require active carbon to maintain micro and macro populations in the soil, of which the mycelia of micro- and macrofungi are an essential, if not the most important interlinking constituents, and are not "accomodated" by the inactive carbon of Biochar.

As Biochar is mainly used for reforestation and agriculture in the tropics, i.e. for soil fertility management of overexploited and exhausted soils, I don't think there are much benificial effects to be expected of these products for European natural forests and woodlands, or even detrimental effects for tree species specific ecosystems of indigenous tree species must be feared, because of the possible changes in the (biochemistry of) tree species specific soil food webs triggered by inactive carbon changing the composition and variation of the micro- and macro-organisms living in and of the soil food webs on which indigenous trees largely depend.

So in my opinion, we would be wise to stay away from these products primarely developed for food production purposes and for production forests of tropical hardwood.

Would like to take my kinder to the country of my birth at some stage.

I think, your children will especially like the "pixie and dryad's forest" of ashes and up to one hundred years old and 10 metres high hazels, surrounding a quarter of the volcanic "Totenmaar" or Weinfelder Maar (= lake) near Daun (Volcanic Eifel).

Could you recommend a book or books that would help me understand techniques for taking this research to the next level? I want to establish every aspect of this fungi's habits and abilities to produce a paper on this much neglected fungi

Tony,

No, not one or a couple of books, but a small library with books, articles and papers on the many subjects concerned and involved and/or some own field research to document and complete or correct it.

As a reflection of my own research and long term developed expertise on the subject, I am in the prelimenary stages of writing an illustrated book (or dvd) on the (dynamics of) tree species specific ecosystems of indigenous tree species depending on ectomycorrhizal macrofungi, such as Quercus robur, Fagus, Betula, Populus, Salix, Alnus, Tilia, Carpinus, Corylus and Pinus sylvestris and the role the tree species specific symbionts and saprotrophic and parasitic macrofungi play in these ecosystems and their soil food webs.

So until I have found a publisher for it (Dutch, German and/or English), you'll have to "pick my brain" for this kind of information.

The barely visible fruiting bodies of the Fenugreek Stalkball. Smells of (funnily enough) fenugreek and/or curry Here on Tilia, having a little visit by a woodlouse.

David,

In The Netherlands present since 2004, until now found at about 10 locations on dead wood (wounds) of standing or fallen (living) beech, horse chestnut, oak and alder, without evidence, that its mycelium can cause more then a superficial rot of the wood. Are there any indications of detrimental effects in England ?

How high is the topography there.

Is it mainly coniferous?

The altitudes in the mountainous southern Eifel region vary from 400 to 600 metres. It is partially, but not mainly coniferous (Picea, Abies, Pinus, Larix), but also has large areas with "Lohehecken" (Quercus robur, Carpinus and Corylus) forests, old beech woods, poor (calcareous) grasslands with Juniperus and lots of orchids and macrofungi (Hygrocybe, Clavulinopsis, Earth Tongues), in the clefts and along brooks relicts of Lime and Holly woodlands, open forests with birch, ash, Robinia and poplar (P. tremula) and banks of streams with alder, willow and poplar.

That's unfortunate, as because of this, it's not possible to adequately monitor the yearly development of new tube layers on the brackets and diagnose the "body language", i.e. panic reproduction of it as a symptom or predictor of the danger of the fall of the tree, as building "reaction" layers of the bracket now can also be a reaction of the mycelium to the damage done to the bracket.

In general, I would advise never to totally remove a perennial bracket of neither saprotrophic, nor necrotrophic or biotrophic parasitic wood degrading macrofungi other then for a very good reason (identification), because removal triggers or forces the mycelium to speedy reinvest in producing reproductive organs by extra decomposing wood to build new brackets from and this destabilizes the already degraded tree even further, because of the extra loss of unaffected wood structures.

And one should also bear in mind, that in the process of converting one sugar polymere cellulose (trees) into another sugar polymere chitine (fungi), about 20 % of the energy stored in the wood is lost, which implicates, that depending on the type of rot, 100 % of fungal tissue outside the tree is associated with (much) more then 120 % loss of wood, because wood only contains 70-80 % cellulose.

The instable structure of what we Dutch call the "plakoksel" (= badly "glued" or joined together "armpit" or union) did the trick, maybe along with rhizomorphs of Armillaria or the mycelium of Bjerkandera adusta or Pholiota aurivella entering from above and decomposing heartwood downwards, which I have sometimes found together with secondary roots of the beech growing out in the moist rotting wood at the bottom of the split opening the gap even wider.

Examples of how beeches with bi- or trifurcated trunks can compensate for the instability of the "plakoksels" can be found in one of my long term research locations, a 100-150 years old beech forest in the centre of The Netherlands.

Here, some beeches have activated their sleeping branch buds from opposite sides of two trunks growing towards another until contact is made and the branches fuse forming a stabilizing branch bridge of up to a metre in length.

Is it all similar to allelopathy in plants and trees

Rob,

And to the territorial warfare among macro- and microfungi each figting for their patch on/in a cow pat with fungicides and antibiotics produced by their mycelia and all of that in a strict order or succession. If you monitor a cow pat over time (stereo microscope), you can find up to 40 different species of micro- and macrofungi living in/on it until it crudely is recycled.

1. I have manged to get some active mycelium up to Lynne body, but havent spoken to her for a while ...

2. would you think it easy to grow some in a petry dish of agar?

1. Who's Lynne body ?

2. I think in this case, any cellulose rich medium or substrate will do, even a pile of wet newspapers or cardboard.

1. I have long wondered if fungi (or microbial life in general) are in posession of a form of intelligence we do not yet recognise for it lacks a brain.

2. is the book available in english?

Tony,

1. There are many examples of how the hypae of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi communicate with tree roots using pheromones to "ask" to be accepted as symbiotic partner, just as there are examples of tobacco plants of the same species communicating among each other with pheromones to warn others once one of them is attacked by flying green lice, which triggers its neighbours to produce poisonous defence substances in their leaves.

There is an American species of a parasitic Armillaria producing and mimicing the pheromones of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi to be "let in", that once penetrating the outer layers of a root, as a wolf in sheep's clothes develops into an aggressive parasite.

And another spectacular example of working together through communication is known of a tropical Acacia species with hollow spines housing small colonies of ants inside. The "cave" has two nipples, one producing liquid sugar to keep the ants inside and one alarm nipple deactivating the sugar nipple and secreting pheromones directing the ants to the outer foliage of the crown if the leaves are eaten by insects. As one can understand, the ants need both the daily sugar and a regular portion of the insects to survive.

2. You mean the Japanese book on myxomycetes ? I don't know and I don't have it, but I think looking at the photo's alone with the latin names underneath could also be worthwhile.

1. so what caused my tree to split out? was it the gano or the union or the age or all of the above?

2. and are there all sorts of gano now feeding on the carcass? or is it just one species?

Rob,

1. The instable structure of what we Dutch call the "plakoksel" (= badly "glued" or joined together "armpit" or union) did the trick, maybe along with rhizomorphs of Armillaria or the mycelium of Bjerkandera adusta or Pholiota aurivella entering from above and decomposing heartwood downwards, which I have sometimes found together with secondary roots of the beech growing out in the moist rotting wood at the bottom of the split (see the photo of the upside down part of the split with the roots on top) opening the gap even wider.

2. I'm 95 % sure this is only one species, i.e. Ganoderma lipsiense on beech.

I'd lock gerrit up in a vault & just wheel him out specifically just for my own selfish fungoidial needs ...

You're giving me a fright to come to England in the maybe very near future !!!

well apart from not understanding what was said the was pretty impressive with the maze thing!

Rob,

What among others is said, is that this one-celled organism seems to have a kind of "brain" making it possible to (re)orientate and regroup after it has been cut in pieces and then still can find a shortcut to the food outside the maze.

From today, CLASSIC language.

I was reminded today of just how much confidence i have on this, so far its anecdotal i know, but soon it wont be. its going to cost me an arm and a leg to prove this but it will be worth it.

CLIMBERS beware of this one:thumbdown: it can do nasty things to stem mechanics so avoind extreme pulls and heavy rigging.

Tony,

Looks frightening !!! Would you say, that the purplish zone to the right in the before last two photo's is representing or representative for the wood being coloured by the mycelium of Auricularia ?

My contribution to the special photo's of Fistulina hepatica, in this case at 6 metres hight on the about 25 degrees slanting trunk of a not very old Castanea sativa.

Been watching this "stump" for a little while.

Thought it was Ganoderma resinaceum at first, now sure that it is Perenniporia fraxinea

Will be more careful with my 'visual' Id around these two in the future

Fomes fomentarius on Oak.

.

The Channel has always proved to be an effective barrier to the lazy females, who prefer to stay put and let the males come to them - as it should be .

If that was the main reason , then how did the female moth of Operophtera brumata arrive in England, as they can hardly fly to not fly at all and have to walk on "lover's lane", i.e. up the tree, to await and meet male partners ?

Because they probably are not regular rhizomorphs, but plaques of Armillaria, with the air exposed outside black melanine layer protecting the vulnerable inside hyphae - which colonize and slowly decompose the upper layer of one side of the dead delaminated wood and cause the pale brown decolouration of the wood - against acids and attacks by insects and parasitic microfungi or bacteria. I'll later post a photo of this type of pale brown (white) rot caused by the primal hyphae of Armillaria, which were before protected by a melanine layer.

Photo 1. Quercus robur with bark (and attached rhizomorphs) falling of, because of the pressure of the rhizomorphs and plaques attacking the cambium and while swelling filling the cambium space, with the formerly present melanine plaques protecting the hyphea, which partially superficially have white rotted the dead wood causing a pale brown decolouration.

Photo 2. Detail of the trunk of the same tree. To the right you can see the pattern of the imprints of the rhizomorphs in and behind the cambium zone and at the bottom, there still is some of a melanine plaque present.

These shots depict what I presume is a delaminated (from the decayed wood within a basal cavity of the Oak in shot 1) Melanine sheet, showing both the outer (black/brown) surface & the inner light/tan coloured surface.

Also posted for a pictoral comparison is the white Mycelial sheet that I stripped away from the brown cubical rot of a Laetiporus affected Oak trunk.

My question is/are......

1. Why the difference in colour & texture to the Melanine sheet sides ?

2. Also, is this the same (or not) as a psuedosclaratial plate (like these ones) , often seen defending decay zones across sections of cross cut trunks/branches.

3. Finally, are both the Melanine & Mycelial sheets made up from similar myco building blocks ?

David,

1. Because they probably are not regular rhizomorphs, but plaques of Armillaria, with the air exposed outside black melanine layer protecting the vulnerable inside hyphae - which colonize and slowly decompose the upper layer of one side of the dead delaminated wood and cause the pale brown decolouration of the wood - against acids and attacks by insects and parasitic microfungi or bacteria. I'll later post a photo of this type of pale brown (white) rot caused by the primal hyphae of Armillaria, which were before protected by a melanine layer.

2. No, the black outside of Armillaria rhizomorphs and plaques is melanine based and the colouration of the black demarcation lines of the mycelia of wood decomposing macrofungi bordering the individual territories are self-produced fungicides (and antibiotics) based, i.e. traces of there defensive "weapons", locally turning the wood black.

And the white mycelial sheet presented could well be of Laetiporus sulphureus.

3. No, see 1. and 2. And the picture of the cross section seems to be of a beech, which makes the presence of defense barrieres especially produced by beech to keep the mycelium of Ustulina deusta inside the heartwood and prevent it from growing outwards towards the cambium through the radial rays.

Conclusion. There are three types of black layers : melanine based Armillaria plaques, demarcation lines of different species defending their territories with their defensive weapens (fungicides), which cause the wood to blacken and defensive lines formed by the tree and triggered by the mycelium of Spaeriales, such as Ustulina deusta.

Further up in this tree there were two small developing brackets on this very dead/dysfunctional branch system.

Ganoderma sp it would seem ? possibly applanatum/lipsiense.

We can at least agree on that : Ganoderma cf. lipsiense on beech .

Look forward to the link.

David,

Here they are : http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/ecology/29151-myxomycetes.html#post477258

As promised, some video's on myxomycetes, starting with the most spectacular part of a German documentary on myxomycetes, showing the yellow plasmodium of Tilmadoche (= Trichia) polycephala in action in a maze in a Japanese laboratory :

Watch Schleimpilze 4 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Followed by the parts 1, 2 and 3 of the same German documentory :

Watch Schleimpilze 1 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Watch Schleimpilze 2 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Watch Schleimpilze 3 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

And by a less impressive video in French :

Watch Myxomycètes, Un Mystere De La Vie Online - VideoSurf Video Search