Fungus

I've often pondered which comes first between Laetiporus & Fistulina. My gut feeling is that perhaps Fistulina as a slow rotter, is well in attendance before opportunity allows the ingress of Laetiporus via later wounding etc....

David,

I have partially answered your question in the discussion on the co-existence of Collybia fusipes and Fistulina hepatica on oak in : http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/fungi-pictures/28855-fistulina-hepatica.html, but to elaborate on that, in veteran Quercus robur, which is, together with Q. petrea and Castanea sativa, the only tree species, in/on which you can find both of them together, they often co-operate, both having their independend and fiercely defended territories, where F. hepatica almost always fruits in contact with the cambium after producing massive bark necrosis and L. sulphureus fruits from the decomposed brown rotted heartwood of the affected tree. Also see my Album : Fistulina hepatica.

The first two (or three ?) photo's probably show Anthrodiella semisupina, which has as a field identification characteristic, that you can not bite through the bracket with your front teeth.

Matt,

Or provided the annual brackets are spongy and soft, it is a Postia or Tyromyces species, which depending on the species, causes a white or a brown rot.

Daldinia concentrica looking quite purple in these shots not the typical black outer layer commonly seen in the photographs in many ID books.

Sean,

Nice pictures , well documented. By the way, Daldinia concentrica always "kicks off" in this purplish colour.

Some examples of succession or co-existence of two species of fungi are :

- Bjerkandera adusta, a saprotrophic species, which causes a species specific type of white rot with self-produced organohalogens (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons), on beech often followed by Trametes gibbosa, which then starts as a parasite of the mycelium of B. adusta (see first photo).

- Trametes versicolor sometimes followed by Lenzites betulinus, which then starts as a parasite of the mycelium of T. versicolor.

- Yelly fungi, such as Tremella encephala, a parasite of the mycelium of Stereum sanguinolentum and T. mesenterica, a parasite of other Stereum spp. and of Peniophora species.

- Chroogomphus rutilus and Gomphidius glutinosus, parasites of the mycelia of ectomycorrhizal Suillus and Rhizopogon species and Gomphidius roseus, a parasite of the ectomycorrhizae of Suillus bovinus.

- Lycoperdon pyriforme, which sometimes fruits on or near (hidden) old crusts of Ustulina deusta (see second photo of the base of a Tilia).

Nothing better than trashing a forest floor of delicate mushies, when a naive & uneducated youngster.

David,

Forty years ago, I was a youngster in my early twenties and the vandal was a senior forest ranger over 50 years old, who threatened to fine me if I ever was caught going off the path (and taking pictures) or otherwise "damaging" the forest floor again and he laughed me in the face when I told him what the detrimental effects of his destructive behaviour were .

Thanks Gerrit.

Sean,

You're welcome. And here is an example of an old Phellinus igniarius with recently receeding yearly layers (emergency reproduction) typical of willow, of which the heartwood behind the bracket has been white rotted and decomposed completely.

Are you certain it's not Honey fungus? I saw a bloke on the telly last week, he said it was.

I once met a Dutch forest ranger and "manager", who said, that all mushrooms fruiting on the forest floor in the vicinity of trees were parasites and had to be removed to protect the roots of the trees and keep the trees from dying, after which he started kicking Amanita's, Boletes, Lactarius and Russula's about !!!

In my Album (Tilia + Ganoderma), Tony asked me to describe the characteristics of the sterile emergency reproduction "lumps" of perennial Ganoderma's, such as G. lipsiense and G. australe.

Sometimes they have a smooth greyish to pale brown surface, sometimes a greyish, partially blackening and cracking surface (see photo of G. lipsiense on beech, also showing Ustulina deusta to the right), they can be up to 10-15 centimetres in diameter and they never have developed fertile layers of tubes with pores.

could you enlighten me a little as to how to tell the difference please.

Jack,

The main macroscopical difference between Phellinus igniarius and P. robustus is the shape of the perennial brackets. Older, up to 40 x 20 x 15 cm big brackets of Phellinus igniarius mostly are more bracket-like shaped with broad annual growth (see first photo), whereas older up to 25 x 10 x 20 cm big brackets of P. robustus mostly are more compact bulbous to hoof-shaped with more regular annual growth (see second photo). But 100 % sure : microscope.

People eating Fungi ????????

What the Fu.......ng, that's just nuts

David,

Eating mushrooms is comparable to consuming insects such as locusts, because fungi are closer related to insects then to plants, as they both depend on the photosynthesis by green plants for their energy (sugars) and both have chitine as a major element of the walls of their cells and the outer layers of their "bodies", which is a sugar polymere "derived" from the sugar polymere cellulose.

Phellinus Igniarious on Horse Chestnut.

Sean,

I agree on Phellinus , but would choose P. robustus as a more likely candidate. The main difference in the perennial brackets of Ganoderma's, like G. lipsiense and the perennial brackets of Phellinus species, such as P. robustus, is that you can push in/down the crust of Ganoderma's, because of the soft tissue within, and you can drive nails into wood with P. robustus.

I can not be sure beacuse of the depth of decay but I guess Aesculus sp due to the abundance locally - do you know what it is?

Apart from a lot of Polyporus squamosus, the yellow species probably is Pleurotus cornucopiae or an(other) "escape" from a nursery such as P. citrinopileatus, both (also) cultivated for the human food chain.

I would say trametes versicolour if i was pushed for an answer, its hymenium is not smooth.

Judging by the whitish to cream colour of the hymenium, so would I : Trametes versicolor it is .

I know it's common as I see it often but can anyone give me a name?

This is not a mycelium, but one of the many saprotrophic Aphyllophorales without pores and tubes or spines living in/on/of bark without damaging the condition of the tree, of which it is impossible to give a name without using a microscope. A wild guess would be, that it is a Botrybasidium or Hyphoderma species.

Im going to cry if you think this is mis identified!

Tony,

A bit more info might be helpful : annual/perennial, soft/brittle or tough tissue, smell, tree species, and anything else you might think of to keep you (and me) from crying .

1.A Yellow Pluerotus sp on sycamore that I have only seen once and never identified.

2. A Pholiota? or is it a rustgill junonius? x 2 images

3. and a dark almost nigra fungi growing in grass in mixed woodland (pine/seqioua/broadleaf)

Tony,

1. Probably an "escape" from a nursery of Pleutotus species like P. ostreatus fm. Florida, of which the mycelium does not need a frostbite to fruit, or P. citrinopileatus, both "created" and cultivated for the human food chain.

2. Gymnopilus sapineus (= G. penetrans).

3. Hard to say without knowing the colour of the spores and whether the stem has a bulbous base. Could f.i. be a Lepiota or perhaps an Inocybe.

An untypical formation that has puzzled us a bit.

I went up the Oak to get a closer look & to take a sample so I could send down to Martin Ainsworth at the Jodrel lab at Kew.

It came back as unconclusive due to not enough reproductive material in evidence.

David,

No need to send a sample to Kew, this is a (partially) sterile "tuber", i.e. the typical form of emergency reproduction of Daedalea quercina, as it is sometimes seen on Quercus robur, but more often is documented from Q. rubra.

A warning : the mycelium fruits in this deformed and half to complete sterile way once the substrate, the heartwood of the tree, has completely been brown rotted and there is to little "nourishment" left to produce a normal fertile perennial bracket. Especially at great hight affected Q. rubra can be very dangerous.

I'll attach one of my photo's of the phenomenon as an illustration.

from these images is it possible to say if it is Adspersum or Applamatum? Or indeed something else......if so what are the clues from a purely visual; perspective?

Sean,

The macroscopic characteristics and the host (beech) point in the direction of Ganoderma lipsiense (= G. applanatum), but without the presence of nipple-shaped galls of Agathomyia wankowisczi, microscopic identification by measering the spores is needed to be 100 % sure.

you sneaky dog! these are both slightly different to what i would typicaly expect, and i will return the gesture too!

i am going to hate your return answer arent I! but im game, i want to learn.

P squarosus but they are strange, almost spikey rather than shaggy

P. aurivella BUT the fibers at the cap edge dont fit but the colours are ok and there is some aurivella scaling on the peak of the cap.

bet they turn out to be both squarosus!

Tony,

Helas, both times wrong.

The first one is Pholiota squarrosoides, an extremely rare species from very old forests with beech and abies, i.e. the Bavarian Biosphere Reserve and National Forest of Zwieseler Waldhaus (Germany), of which the photo of Hericium flagellum also originated.

And the second one is Pholiota limonella, an also extremely rare species living on fallen trunks of very old poplars, only once found by me in The Netherlands.

The first two pictures are of a small white bracket fungi. It was growing on a Hazel stub that had been cut 3 years previously. We had heavy rainfall the week prior to taking the picture. The second pair of pictures are of a similar bracket on a dead ash limb that had dropped. The last 3 pictures were taken at the base of an ill cherry tree measuring aprox 18 inch dbh. It has since fallen over but is still growing. Any ideas?

Hi Matt,

The first two (or three ?) photo's probably show Anthrodiella semisupina, which has as a field identification characteristic, that you can not bite through the bracket with your front teeth.

The following three photo's show the saprotrophic Psilocybe (= Hypholoma) fascicularis, of which the mycelium produces organohalogens (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) to decompose the wood with.

Im confident, very much so, and not the first time ive seen them at base of trees:001_smile: But I will have some scopes soon enough, then confidence wont be an issue! its the only way forward it seems. if these are not aurivella's i give up without a scope.

Tony,

So what names would you give to the following two Pholiota's ?

Are you sure it's not dogshit your pointing at ?

What do you think of the disruptions to woundwood in this image?

Looks dramatic, but from the photo alone I can not determine whether it is caused by Auricularia, or f.i. by a parasitic Armillaria, because I have seen quite a few comparable disruptions of woundwood caused by as cambium killers operating rhizomorphs of A. ostoyae.

so, collybia fusipes? cause of root degradation or not? in my wood this is an increasing occurrence, I seem to remember seeing a small unformed fistulina 3ft up from base on trunk.

the tree is Q robur.

Tony,

Looks like it, I've often seen similar root and trunk base decay caused by C. fusipes in Q. robur and Carpinus forests in the Eifel, where I, until last year, lived for 8 years, but without fruiting 100 % proof is missing.

no....it was taken from the ground.....limb about 12ft up.

Sean,

I think Tony meant, please also show an image from the topside and I would like to know what tree species it is on, is pink the natural colour or is it from sunlight falling through and does the downside have pores or is the hymenium smooth ?