Fungus

It occurred to me today that the species of fungi, especially the sulphur tuft, could well be feeding on the oaksleepers themselves. Oak sleepers are quite rare round here, sleepers usually being old railway sleepers steeped in in organic chemical. Are they treated ?

Hypholoma fasciculare is a saprotrophic species, decomposing wood and woodchips with polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

They are on an old pruning wound ... weeping willow. Are they D. confragosa?

Graham,

Smell of aniseed when fresh or iodine when dried out ? If so, Trametes suaveolens. If not, probably Bjerkandera fumosa or B. adusta.

seem to be bonding more and more with my little dog now as i have caved in and started to let him sleep at the bottom of my bed ... is it ok or should he be kept downstairs as he's got a cage that he uses in kitchen and a large kennel in yard

Depends on whether it's a he-dog or a bitch.

Males want to be dominant, be(come) the alpha dog or on top and leader of the pack (hierarchy), which means they want to have first pick of food (some dogs try to eat from your plate or steal food and defend once given or gathered food), first pick of spot or territory (lay down (and sleep) on their favourite "safe" spot on the sofa or in your bed, preferably in between your wife and you) and first pick of sex or reproduction (mounting your leg or that of strangers).

So by letting him sleep in your bed, you "tell" him he has first pick of spot, by giving him or letting him steal food at/from the table or your plate you "tell" him he has first pick of food and I won't get into the details of what is communicated, when you allow him to ... .

Bitches are far more submissive (to you, but not necessarily to your wife or daughters, dogs smell the differing feromones) and are "easier" drilled or trained and shown their place in the hierarchy of your family, i.e. the pack.

Some bitches may compete for your attention with the female members of your family. They mostly respond different to new born babies (protection, "nursing") than male (alpha) dogs do.

Some dogs want to sleep close to your face to be able to watch your mouth when awake, because showing your teeth is an act of aggression and threat, and that's why some dogs react with barking when people laugh out loud, because they feel threatened by the display of teeth.

Urea. They spray the stumps

Must be sprayed automatically by the harvester head.

So they could just as well urinate on the stumps then ?

two rowan trees about 15 years old. The lower 2 braches on both tree has died and were soft to touch. I looked all over the tree and all i could find was some small whitish spots on one of the dead branches. i have looked in diagnosis of ill health in trees and i was thinking silver leaf maybe. as the owner did say the leaves went funny?

Adam,

Silver leaf disease is caused by Chondrostereum purpureum, it can occur without FB's of the fungus being present (yet). Two other white rot causing bracket fungi often appear on Sorbus, Daedaleopsis confragosa and Trametes gibbosa. And whitish to pinkish spots on a dead branch can be anamorphs of a Nectria species or another Pyrenomycete.

1. Mycena species

4. Growing in calcareous soil : Mycena pura

10/12. Flammulina velutipes

Whether the above situation has had an effect on the fact that Fagus now appears to be a significant host tree, I'm not sure. Is this similar to the situation in Holland/Germany ?

Yes, it is while mostly fruiting from large pruining wounds and it's also quite common on Fraxinus and far less common on Salix and Populus.

1. Not a rareity here either Gerrit, though the extent of decay Is what I have found to be suprising.

2. D. Lonsdale describes the strategy as potentialy either sapwood or ripewood decay. In this particular instance the sapwood appears relatively intact, all be it of small residual thickness. What are your experiences of P. squamosus in terms wood decay strategy ?

1. I meant it being rather common with respect to the extent of wood decay in the four tree species.

2. The same as Lonsdale's, although I find it mostly restricted to dead heartwood and not invading (living) sapwood.

Sean,

1/1a Ganoderma spp

2/2a Pleurotus ostreatus

3 Lepista/Clitocybe spp

4 Piptoporus betulinus

5 With pores and tubes ? If so, a bolete

6 Pholiota mutabilis or Galerina autumnalis/marginata

7/8

Fairly dramatic large Sycamore failure today. This is the biggest failure due to P. squamosus that I've come across to date. The failure.......

David,

... which IME is rather common in Acer and in Aesculus, Tilia and Ulmus too.

Verigris agaric

Without a photo of the ring and gills (margin), it's impossible to say whether it's Stropharia aeruginosa or S. caerulea (= S. cyanea).

the Lilac fibrecap, but tbh I'm not that confident of it.

Inocybe species are ectomycorrhizal, Acer is associated with endomycorrhizal microfungi.

Depending on the colour of the spores (and gills) and whether the dark blue colour is correct, with pink spores it's one of the blue Entoloma species and with purplish black spores it's one of the Panaeolus species such as P. ater.

Abstract "painting" of a lichen covered Platanus shedding bark. Notice the face top right ?

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Only if someone tells him

Janey,

I won't, that's for sure .

After Life: The Strange Science of Decay

The documentary is "available to play in the U.K. only".

And should Mattheck see you're using his original material as an avatar, he'll sue you for violating his copyrights .

lichens

Tony,

The first one seems to be a macrofungus looking like a lichen such as Athelia epiphylla.

And I think the 7th photo shows a myxomycete such as Comatricha nigra fruiting on a Coniophora species.

three shots from that walk at Burleigh Headlands... Best wishes for the holidays and 2012.

Sean,

. Does the middle picture show a Peltigera species ? And best wishes to you too.

Latin rules!

.

You mean Sambucus

Matt,

Of course, again a mix up of English names of tree species .

Could Number 5 be Marasmius alliaceus? I would say im 70% sure on it

Tom,

No, M. alliaceus only grows on (buried) beech branches in beech woods, not on Douglas fir wood and it doesn't have the veins connecting the gills at the base (photo 4), which is a characteristic of Mycena galericulata.

1. lichens ... they certainly play a critical role in the degredation of minerals bound into rocks and seem so often to be over looked when it comes to measuring ecological diversity.

2. Walking with folks that are captivated my lichens and miniture fungal fruiting bodies can certainly be a lot slower than most are used to....I know I can be very annoying to walk with when others are keen to get some exercise and a work out from their tramping.

3. Recently took a stroll in one of the small and heavily stressed headland national parks not far from the office just after a rainstorm

Sean,

1. They do and not only on rocks, but also on bark of trees and other substrates, on which they are an important bio-indicator of acidification and nitrification.

2. The same goes for my wife and me, always walking "with our eyes" instead of "with our feet", which makes us not the best company to be with for friends who are more interested in tramping without noticing the true wonders of nature.

3. Nice pictures, the gilled mushrooms will probably be a Mycena, the bracket fungus an indigenous species I have no idea of.

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The fossil record can expose some most unusual evolutionary paths, some of them still being travelled today. Prototaxites, probably the tallest organism of the late Silurian and early Devonian periods (Paleozoic era) certainly can make you ponder the transient nature of any climatic climax community.

Sean,

Recent (French) research has shown, that Prototaxites was a lichen, i.e. a symbiotic combination of a microfungus and a cyanobacteria, of which the microfungus profited most.

Fossils of it are displayed in the Devonium Museum in Waxweiler (German Eifel), the town where lots of other 400 million old fossils are found and I used to live in for eight years.

Matt,

3/5 : Unknown fungi : Mycena galericulata.

6/12 : As Tony said : Heterobasidion annosum.

was on Elder.

Matt,

Then you'll have to make sure it's Agrocybe cylindracea, because that would be a first find on Alnus ever.

2,3,4, - Unknown fungi growing on dying Elder

5,6,7,8 - ?Trametes sp? on Ash stump

Matt,

2/4 : are you sure it's on elder, because this looks like Agrocybe cylindracea (= A. aegerita), that is (this far) restricted to poplar and willow.

5/8 : Bjerkandera adusta too.