Fungus

And I am of the persuasion, that it could be a degenerated bracket of a lot of other perennial species, which are more often found on beech, so with determination of the spore colour and the size of them (microscope), it is impossible to identify the "rotten" thing .

David, If unlucky, the (Hama)dryad's saddle could partially be covered and consumed by the red plasmodium of Lycogala epidendrum, although it is more often seen of the eggyolk yellowish plasmodium of Badhamia utricularis SoortenBank.nl : Troskalknetje - Badhamia utricularis, in this photo colonizing and "grazing" on Stereum hirsutum. There is a great German documentary on myxomycetes I have on dvd, I'll try to locate it on the internet and upload a link.

Are you sure of your identification of G. lipsiense on Quercus (?) without microscopically checking its spores, because G. lipsience is seldom found on oaks, which mostly are attacked by the also perennial G. australe or by annual Ganoderma species, such as G. resinaceum or G. lucidum and sometimes by the also perennial G. pfeifferi.

David, I have both the English and the Dutch (one on one translated) version, and I'm sorry to say, that it is not as far macrofungi are concerned.

I know, but my point was and is, that in this international company of Europeans and forum members from down under, to avoid misunderstandig one another, we could better stick to the latin genus and/or species names, just as I do with the names of macrofungi, of which only a few have an English species name.

Because of the lack of energy delivered from the diminishing decomposition of cellulose by the mycelium, needed for forming new layers, the tube layers retract or withdraw while covering the earlier formed pores and layers, as you can see in the photo of an old Phellinus igniarius on an almost completely heartwood white rotted willow.

Arbgirl, Thanks for the enlightenment, but in the U.S., Platanus occidentalis (also) is called American or Eastern Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and P. racemosa is called Californian Sycamore, so I think (at least for me, not being a native speaker of the English language) it's best to call the tree species by its genus name and not by its local or popular name. Besides, London Plane is not a species, but a hybrid.

That's what I said, your tree is an Acer or maple (in Dutch esdoorn), Woodpicker's tree, I think, is a Platanus (in Dutch plataan). The problem arises because in English sycamore is used for either Acer or Platanus. As to Phytophthora and the Armillaria, it makes no difference which tree species your or his tree is, as to Inonotus hispidus it does, because it only is a parasite of Platanus and not of Acer.

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.

An infection with either of the two causes a slow, but certain (long term) death of the tree.

If it is infected with Armillaria, there is no (urgent) need to fell the tree, because necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species only start slowly decomposing the trunk of the tree outside in towards the heartwood after it is dead to enable fruiting of the mycelium and because of this leave behind a stable "tree corpse" once it is killed.

John, That would indicate, (rhizomorphs of) Armillaria might be active. And for identifying Phytophthora as the cause of a bleeding canker, microscopical research and evidence is needed.

By looking at the bark, I assume we're dealing with a Platanus species and not with an Acer species, as is shown in the link. Confusion about what a sycamore is ?

Necrotrophic parasitic species of Armillaria only fruit, when the tree is (nearly) killed or on the remaining base of the trunk once the tree is felled.

1. On Quercus, most probably G. australe, the most "aggressive" heartwood rotter compared to G. lipsiense, but 100 % sure : microscope (spores). 2. Hard to say without self-inspection and diagnosis and/or by a photo alone, but as long as the oak stabilizes itself by developing buttresses shaped as pillars or columns of wood, even with the cavity, the tree will stay save for some to even several years.

John, At what hight on the trunk does this occur ? Depending on this, it could be caused by rhizomorphs of a parasitic Armillaria (mellea/ostoyae) invading the cambium and blocking the energy and water and/or nutrients transport, or by the mycelium of Inonotus hispidus active in the starch rich radial rays.

Janey, In The Netherlands, the appearance of the first hatched eggs of OPM always is preceded (tree species specific succession) by two to three weeks by other caterpillars, such as those of the moth Operophtera brumata, which are intolerant for tannin. These caterpillars alone, or along with OPM as successors, can leave completely leafless branches behind, by which the lammus foliage is triggered to develop, which in its turn often is infected by spores of the anamorph of the oak leave mildew. In this way, up to more then 70-90 + 30 = 100-120 % of the normal yearly energy production by fotosynthesis is lost, which ultimately weakens the energy reserve of the total tree species specific ecosystem, including the ectomycorrhizal macrofungi, dramatically, which in its turn causes the tree roots to be poorly protected against parasites or toxic elements (salt, heavy metals) and drought by (the self produced antibiotics and fungicides of) their symbionts. In a row or lane of early caterpillar species affected Quercus robur, sometimes an unattacked oak can be found with a completely normally developed first foliage. In my experience and that of the Dutch OPM-taskforce, this always is an oak, which has fully developed its leaves two to three weeks before the surrounding oaks did, so it was no longer "edible" for tannin intolerant species hatching at that time. And peculiar enough, the leaves of this tree also are not "consumed" by their successors, the later hatching OPM and neither is the lammus foliage of the surrouding oaks if covered with the anamorph of the oakleave mildew, which has "stored" its spores in the leave buds to immediately being able to infect and completely colonize the young leaves. What I did observe last year, was that one of these trees on the 7th of June was accompanied by three fully to overdeveloped fruitbodies of Russula amoenolens, an ectomycorrhizal symbiont, which normally fruits in October, a phenomenon which must be diagnosed as panic reproduction of the mycelium, taking more energy from the roots of the oak then the tree can afford at that time of the year when it still needs to fruit itself, producing seeds, which contain an energy reserve for five years. All of these phenomenons have proven to be directly associated with the ammonia depostion coming from overmanured mais fields, no longer produced for cattle food, the criterium for EU-susidies, but used as fuel for the biogas installations of farmers also using neo-nicotine, which causes honeybee populations to die, as insecticides on their mais fields. In The Netherlands, recently was discovered, that OPM not only produces nests in the crowns and on the trunks of the affected trees, but also builds nests up to 30 centimetres underneath the soil surface, which makes fighting and killing OPM even more problematic. And a question : is known how OPM came to England ? Of OPM is noted, that the moth can not fly over long distances and also can not cross rivers or large open waters. I was the first to hypothesize, that its enormous and fast spreading over The Netherlands from the southeast to the north was brought about by caterpillars long distance travelling on top of lorries with canvas covers, which had parked for some time underneath affected oaks standing aside the parking spaces along the German and southern Dutch highways, which later was proven to be the case.

See my latest comment on the hosts of Tremella mesenterica and T. aurantia under : Trametes gibossa - Lumpy Bracket - David Humphries’s Fungi Directory - Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists.

Janey, You could be right, provided they have not yet become indigestible (awful taste, mildly poisonous), because of the tannin stored in their bodies without poisening themselves. So that is why they eat fully developed leaves and not just depend on the development of the urticating hairs.

1-4 : Bolbitius vitellinus 5 : Coprinus species, probably C. lagopus

1-3 : Polyporus squamosus 4 : Hypholoma (Psilocybe) fasciculare 5-8 : Trametes gibbosa

1/2/4 : Polyporus squamosus 3 : Ustulina deusta 5-9 : Ganoderma cf. australe (on Quercus robur ?) 10 : Ganoderma cf. pfeifferi (on Quercus ?) 11 : soft : Mycoacia cf. uda, tough : Hyphodontia/Kneiffiela species, tree species ?

Graham, The birds react to the length of daylight. And the synergy of birds and trees sometimes goes wrong, like this year, when the hatching of the four eggs of the blue tits in my backyard had taken place two weeks before the leaves of the oak trees sprouted and the young birds died because of lack of caterpillers, i.e. food. The hatching of the pupae of oak tree leaves depended moth on "fresh", not yet containing tannin oak leaves is restricted to some species, like Operophtera brumata. The caterpillers of the Oak Processionary, which by the way are not on the menu of birds, only eat tannin rich leaves.

My contribution with four examples. 1. Ganoderma lipsiense on beech. 2. Ganoderma pfeifferi on beech. 3. Inonotus hispidus (guttating) on Malus. 4. Armillaria mellea covering the forest floor with white spores.