Fungus

Graham, They "harvested" the infected wood when it had the right colour tone and still was solid enough for processing and then imprignated it for preservation, just like they did with pieces of green coloured wood, which had been infected with the mycelium of Chlorociboria spp. used as intarsia or inlays in Tunbridge Ware.

David, To my knowledge, whitish to pale yellowish mycelial sheets only can originate from Laetiporus, because Fistulina does not totally brown (or soft) rot major parts of the central wood and in colonizing wood with its mycelium, Fistulina colours the wood orange red, just like Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (photo) does.

Rob, And ever since eating it, you keep on banging your head to the wall ?

Tony, We totally agree on this being the life cycle veteran oak trees have to "live through" to survive, but in my opinion and experience, only Laetiporus sulphureus plays this role, so I assume, this photo also shows the dry brown or cubical rot caused by L. sulphureus ?

Tony, In my opinion, the second photo shows a dry brown or cubical rot typical of Laetiporus sulphureus and only the last photo shows the type of bark and cambium necrosis caused by the mycelium of Fistulina hepatica invading the cambium. In The Netherlands, all very old Quercus robur are hollowed out by L. sulphureus, after which they loose the major branches of their crowns and some of them also have the necrosis "cancers" typical of F. hepatica. In my experience, F. hepatica only causes a pattern of circular (wet) brown rotted year rings from which the acids have been consumed, which are interspaced by non-effected intact year rings, because the mycelium grows inside out using the starch rich radial rays as a passage way. Besides, it is even assumed, that F. hepatica could cause a species specific type of soft rot too. And most of the photo's depicting fruitbodies on the tree, show that they emerge from underneath the callus at the side of the wounds or break through the (intact) bark, which indicates, that the mycelium (as always ?) fruits from energy (sugar polymeres) drained from the cambium and/or other living tissue and not from the (dead) wood of the tree.

Rob, Any idea why it is called "poor man's beafsteak" ? Could it be because the fruitbodies contain a high concentration of vinegar acid, the mycelium has "pumped out" from the oak ?

David, 1. Yes it would, starting here and now with our cooperation on the effects of wood decay strategies of macrofungi on the condition and stability of trees. 2. It is happening at an European level (European Mycological Association) and has resulted in a project on drawing up an European Red List for Macrofungi : http://www.plantaeuropa.org/assets/EIP%20files/T2%20-%20EU%20red%20list%20for%20Macro%20fungi.pdf.

David, Yes, it does relate specifically to The Netherlands - Holland only is the western part of my country of birth - because the translaters of the original version of my encyclopaedia were not familiar with the situation in your country, so they confined themselves to simply repeating the data from the Dutch first edition from 1996 in the English first edition of 1997. As you may have noticed, they also sometimes left out the number of species present in your country when a genus is introduced and replaced the number of species with an X. And on my CD-ROM, only the Dutch reviewed edition from 2010 has been updated for the Dutch Red List of 2007.

Steve, I'm looking forward to receiving many posts from you, because every time one of your posts pops up, I enjoy looking a beautiful blue eyed young girl (your daughter ?) straight in the face.

You hereby all are invited to ask questions on the ecology or ecosystems of trees and macrofungi and to upload photo's for - if possible - identification of the species and information on the effects of the fungus on the condition and/or stability of the tree.

In Germany, a guy named Georg Möller can identify polypore macrofungi living on tree trunks by the beetles living in/from them, without seeing or knowing the fungus they used as "maternity ward" or food source.

You're correct on that. It started in the Devonium period with cyano-bacteria (photosynthesis) and microfungi (hyphae/mycelia taking up nutrients from the soil) living as one organism in a state of symbiosis, from which the fungus profited more then the bacteria, initially separately coming from the sea and colonizing land. From these primal land organisms the lichens evolved, with giants such as Prototaxites, an 8 metres high lichen with a diameter of 1.25 metre resembling a branched Mexican cactus, as one of the most impressive representatives. In the Devonium Museum in Waxweiler (Germany) you can find fossilized relics of a Prototaxites species from the Eifel region.

And I can add to this, that I specifically looked for I. dryadeus on 600 years old Abies in the Bavarian Biosphere and National Reserve of Zwieseler Waldhaus (see my article in the latest edition of : Der Tintling - Die Pilzzeitung with photo's of extremely rare (f.i. Hericium flagellum) to unique macrofungi) and on the almost as old Abies in the Czech National Park Sumava and didn't find it. Gerrit

And I can add to it, that Fagus has a life cycle, which is one half to one fourth of the life cycle of Quercus robur, so it takes less time to pass all stages of tree species specific succession. Gerrit

Tony, Compliments , very well documented. I have seen this effect never before, as in the Netherlands Auricularia mesenterica thus far only grows on trunks and especially on vertical saw cuts of dead Ulmus and Populus. And would you exclude Armillaria lutea being responsible for the hollowing of the trees in the photo's with the black inside (melanine plaques ?) as shown in my photo of a hollow Ulmus in my album under Rhizomorphs Armillaria ? Gerrit

Tony, You talk about on, I about in association with, i.e. on (the wood and bark of) the tree, as well as in symbioses with the tree roots or recycling parts of the tree on the forest floor, so are all tree species specific species of macrofungi and especially the ectomycorrhizal symbionts and leave and litter recyclers included in your top two ? For instance, recycling of capules of beech is exclusively done by Xylaria carpophila, where as acorns are recycled by Ciboria batschiana and Hymenoscyphus fructigenus. And Quercus robur has far more tree species specific ectomycorrhizal symbionts such as Russula, Lactarius, Inocybe and Hydnaceae then Fagus has. Gerrit

Tony, No, I only know of reports on I. dryadeus growing on Abies (Yugoslavia, western North America) from Ryvarden & Gilbertson. Gerrit

David, Last year, I wrote an article (in German : Der Tintling - Die Pilzzeitung) on the preference of wood peckers for brown rotted trees over white rotted trees for the purpose of creating a nesting cavity inside of its trunk. Sometimes perennial species such as Phellinus robustus on Quercus rubra are "used" as a shelter over the entrance to prevent rain from coming in. Gerrit

Tony, Apart from oaks, such as old Quercus robur and much younger Q. rubra (sometimes together with Grifola frondosa), I have also collected Ganoderma resinaceum from Fraxinus, Ulmus, Aesculus, Fagus, Platanus and Salix. Especially on Quercus rubra, Aesculus and Ulmus it can be dangerous because of the fast decomposition of the base of the tree and the transitions to the mayor roots, which makes the tree sensitive to sudden wind blasts. Gerrit

Tony, Each species of indigenous trees has its own species specific ecosystem, in the dynamics of which tree species specific symbiotic, parasitic and saprotrophic macrofungi, of which the mycelia form the mayor part of the soil food web, play an important role if not the leading part. From a total of 4.500 (in The Netherlands) to over 8.000 (elsewhere in Europe) indigenous species of macrofungi : - about 20 % is ectomycorrhizal, - 78 % is saprotrophic (recyclers, keeping the food chain or energy system of the tree and/or the forest intact), of which only a few species are necrotrophic parasitic, which means they become totally saprotrophic after the tree has died, - and only 2 % is biotrophic parasitic, which means they die after the tree is killed. As pioneer or late stage fungi and/or generalists or specialist, all of these species fullfill specific functions during the life cycle, i.e. depending on the age of a tree. So with trees with a relatively short life cycle such as birches, you will find Russula and Lactarius species necessary for reproduction (phosphor) after 15-20 years, where as you will find these ectomycorrhizal fungi only after 60-80 years with trees such as oaks and beeches, which can become hundreds of years old. In this respect, the best developed tree species specific ecosytem of deciduous trees is that of Quercus robur, followed by Fagus, Betula, Populus, Salix, Alnus, Carpinus, Tilia, Castanea and Corylus, and of coniferous trees that of Pinus, Larix and Picea. Gerrit

This is a typical scene for the final stage of old beech trees in Dutch forests. In this case, not only Fomes fomentarius is present, but also Meripilus giganteus and not visible in the photo, high up on the tree Pholiota aurivella, Oudemansiella mucida and Inonotus cuticularis and at the backside of the tree Ganoderma lipsiense, Armillaria mellea and Hypholoma fasciculare. From the living roots of the beech, in autumn fruitbodies of ectomycorrhizal fungi such as Scleroderma citrinum (see bottom right of the photo), Boletus badius, Paxillus involutus, Laccaria amethystina and Russula ochroleuca still surface. Ectomycorrhizal symbionts specific for beech such as Russula mairei, R. fellea, Lactarius blennius and L. fluens have disappeared. If you follow and document the presence of fungi over a longer period of time, you can watch the tree species specific succession of symbionts, parasites and saprobionts in progress. Years ago I visited a trunk of a fallen old beech at regular intervals during a period of 15 years and found 157 species of macrofungi on it, each of them having a specific function in the recycling process of the bark and wood at a certain point in time. Gerrit

Tony, The black "ooze" comes from the cambium, which is under attack of the toxins produced by the mycelium. Parasitic Inonotus species (and Fomitopsis pinicola) have a strategy of "pumping out" fluid from the cambium and (starch rich) radial rays, which they temporarely store in and secrete from their fruitbodies (guttation) and "pumping in" toxic enzymes, which are more effective because of the enhightened concentration after the withdrawal of water. And did you consider I. hispidus, which also can be found on beech ? Gerrit

Tony, Perfect , as you can see, it does not have split gills, but forked or bifurcated lamellae, so it is an Agaricales and if it has pale yellowish brown spores, maybe the genus Crepidotus also must be considered. Gerrit

Tony, I have never found the saprotrophic I. nodulosus on wounds of living beeches still standing up, only on the vertical saw cuts of felled beeches laying down. In my experience, the mildly parasitic and saprotrophic I. cuticularis always grows on extensive wounds of standing living beeches with its mycelium penetrating the cambium at the sides of the wound and stops producing fruitbodies once the tree has died. In The Netherlands, I. cuticularis sometimes is followed by Hericium coralloides, which mycelium lives from the wood, that already has been "pre-prepared" by the mycelium of I. cuticularis. Gerrit

Tony, Can you upload an enlarged and detailled photo of the upside down specimen showing the gills, so I can at least determine whether the fungus has split gills like Schizophyllum commune has, because S. commune - on beech wood - can depending on the stage of decomposition of the substrate form this large fruitbodies. Gerrit