Fungus

David,

I assume you know 1/2 is P.o. and 3/4 is C.c.

5/6 : Pholiota (= Kuehneromyces) mutabilis

7/8/9 (+ 10/11 ?) : Xerula species ? If so, X. pudens or X. radicata

12 : the deadly poisonous look-a-like of 5/6 : Galerina marginata (= G. autumnalis) !!!

"I'm not talking about there's only one height of "proper" pollarding, I said, that in this case the pruining should have been localised behind the delaminated and already decayed "hot spots" in the limbs to prevent the need of short term re-pruining and at the same time preserve the tree (and its ecosystem) on the long run."

But would that work if it is a "single time effort to preserve the tree"?

It certainly would give the trees the chance to restore their crowns with much less risk of re-collapsing within the next ten to fifteen years and by that time we'll probably have another city councel that might be willing to finance another effort to long term preserve the trees to avoid a conflict with the recently installed regional Tree Foundation of which I am a consultant.

1. what about the height/spore dispersal factor. It's mostly (almost exclusively) known as a basal/root area fruiter, but fruiting at height would be a far more ergonomic & succesful strategem, would it not ?

2. if it has the ability to decay up the trunk & into the scaffolds, I would of though we would see more frequent examples of it fruiting at height.

1. Have you ever seen the whitish "clouds" of thousands of dispersed spores in a split second coming from a single fruitbody being carried to greater height by the wind ? And I don't think it's about economical strategies, it's all about territorial claims inside or on the tree being the ruling factor. Why else would Pholiota squarrosa never and P. aurivella always fruit at great(er) height on a, i.e. the same tree ?

2. As you can see in my photo's, the mycelium only invades the center of the heart wood of both the trunk and the limbs, so it would have a hard time fruiting by penetrating and decomposing (soft rot) a thick remaining wall of intact wood and living tissue unless there's an open wound facilitating the way out or the tree has been cut as in my example of panic fruiting at 6 metres height.

1. Given that reaction wood can form around defects

2. and assuming that re-pruning can be done per need, I do not see any cause for certainty that catastrophic breakage WILL occur.

3. it's difficult to understand how one height of pollarding can be "proper" in all cases.

4. But there is a lot I do not understand!

1. How much experience do you have with heavily pruned weeping willows with wide open wounds being able to form enough reaction wood in time to keep ever (and already) present spores of white and brown rotters out of the easily invaded and decomposed dead wood ?

2. Sure re-pruning can be done per need, but not by order of and financed by the local authorities, for which this is a single time effort to preserve the trees.

3. I'm not talking about there's only one height of "proper" pollarding, I said, that in this case the pruining should have been localised behind the delaminated and already decayed "hot spots" in the limbs to prevent the need of short term re-pruining and at the same time preserve the tree (and its ecosystem) on the long run.

4. I couldn't agree more .

1. Although exit points for the fungi to fruit is not rare on Beech, as they often shed limbs. So I would think that the oportunity for 'high rise' mycelium of Meripilus to get air & fruit would not be so rare ?

2. Wonder how often Laetiporus has been 'seen' at height on Beech, when may be it's actualy been Meripilus.

1. The opportunity, yes, but the necessity probably not, as it mostly is better facilitated to fruit from the roots and/or the trunk's base where most of the mycelium is present decomposing the cellulose the fungus needs to develop FB's.

2. Not in my country, because in The Netherlands, L. sulphureus has never been found on beech (yet).

Still, a very rare occurance I would have thought.

Yes, the fruiting is, the presence of the mycelium at greater height may not be that rare though.

this may very well be a first record for Meripilus at that height. You've got to speak to Martin at Kew about it at the very least, and probably worth talking to Brian at the Forestry Research as his thing was/is Meripilus decay at height.

David & Tony,

For the U.K. it may be, for The Netherlands it is not. I once found M. giganteus panic fruiting on top of a still standing trunk of an old beech, that had been cut at 6 metres height and I have documented (see photo's) the mycelium of M. giganteus growing upwards in the heart wood of the trunk of a copper beech I had felled up to 6-10 metres height and even penetrating the heart wood of major limbs at 10-12 metres height.

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"Where dysfunction/wounds/decay exist i ALWAYS leave as much growth developing at the point nearest the wound and as long as possible. Catastrophic damage may occur, but is highly unlikely if the tree is maintained over time.

Catastrophic damage may not, but certainly will occur, because both willows are located in a long stretched "corridor" of open space in between building zones at the top and bottom sides of long canal shaped ponds (see photo's) and have been and will be under heavy wind loads during (summer) rain storms causing major far outreaching limbs, especially at the already damaged and/or wood degraded "hot spots" I showed before, to delaminate and break again, leaving the meanwhile developed ecological niches or habitats and their inhabitants behind on the ground .

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dying beech to fell, all sorts of fungus all over it, am i correct in thinking its more likely to be spalted because of this?

Depending on the fungi present and the types of woodrot they cause, the answer is yes. The below photo shows, what kind of pattern the soft rotter K. deusta can "create" in beech.

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Great post, don't know how I missed the original post

Did you also miss my album on Honey fungus, my Quercus robur & Armillaria ostoyae thread and my Pinus & Armillaria ostoyae thread ?

Fagus with large area of cambial dysfunction caused by Armillaria (possibly mellea)

Also evidence of both Kretzschmaria duesta & Pholiota sp (not shown)

The exposed wood has the distinct remnants of melanine plaque. Deep & high Basal cavity within. Some deadwood & dysfunctional branches within the canopy but seemingly root flutes/canopy association still connected around the root plate where there appears to be no Armillaria evidence.

David,

As you suggested, the large area of cambial dysfunction with superficial white rot by the mycelium covered with melanine plaques is caused by Armillaria mellea s.s. And do you mean P. squarrosa with the Pholiota species you think to be present too ?

By the way, I found some rather unexpected new information on A. mellea. In "Macrofungi associated with oaks of Eastern North America (Binion, et al., 2008), the authors say, that in Eastern Asia : "Armillaria mellea forms a mycorrhizal relationship with the orchid Gastrodia elata" and in The United States "is often parasitized by the Pink gill species Entoloma abortivum."

Hygrocybe (me thinks). Found beneath a lime tree although i'm not sure whether this is relevant or not.

Sean,

It's relevant, cause as Tony already said, it's the ectomycorrhizal Laccaria laccata s.l.

ive learnt a good bit already! i think id be a while going through them all though!

Rob,

Did you already try the educational quiz with different levels of intricacy (with latin names) and the identification keys ?

Anybody heard of this or know of anywhere i can muster some research/results? It is particularly trees in the savanna that interest me at the moment but i feel this may be used all over the worlds by trees and plants, just need good examples of it to prove so

Robin,

For my answers to this question, see trees plants sentient beings and my post on plant and fungal communication.

1. I want to evaluate this case in as accurate a way as I can even if it means paying for analyses at a lab!

2. So the old oak that failed IMO due to an aggressive colonisation and soft rotting penetration of the sapwood layer by Fistulina hepatica a rare occurence indeed it has to be said but intense brown cubicle rot by L. sulphereus in around two thirds of the circumfernetial area of the stem left Fistulina with no other survival options. Fistulina panic fruited 18 months to 2 years after the failure, the black liquid remains are still there as evidence of thier position in sapwood layers (cambium) the two areas of colonisation, Fistulina (deep red) area and golden brown cubical decay) via laetiporus sulphureus are obvious here ... very obvious brittle fracture at the root crown, all brittle surfaces with panic fruiting of Fistulina hepatica when panic fruiting.

1. You'll have to evidence and document your hypothesis on F. hepatica (also) causing a brittle soft rot by microscopical analysis of the type of wood rot and identification of hyphae of F. hepatica being the only fungus responsible for this.

2. As I wrote before in a private message, the mycelium of F. hepatica IME only penetrates annual sapwood rings to trigger the living tissue to secrete vinegar acids on which the mycelium feeds until it by travelling inside out via the radial rays reaches the cambium, that is attacked with toxins causing bark and cambium necrosis to develop and the energy needed for the fruiting of F. hepatica only comes from decomposing (brown rotting) cellulose of dead wood.

Im doing a research and stats project soon but not sure whether to use either beech or birch seeds with Ectomychorrizae. I think Birch seeds will be faster growing as its a pioneer species?

Nick,

Not necessarily, the rootlets of birch seeds "loaded" with a minimum of energy reserve associate with both endomycorrhizae and pioneer ectomycorrhizae, such as Laccaria laccata, to "quick start" after germinating, while beech seeds, with an energy reserve for 2 years, "slow starting" after geminating, only associate with pioneer ectomycorrhizal symbionts, of which they prefer Laccaria amethystina, a species Betula is not capable of associating with, over L. laccata.

So you can't use L. laccata for the experiment with both tree species, as beech can't fully profit from the association of its rootlets with L. laccaria and Betula also needs endomycorrhizal microfungi to develop after germinating.

Looks a good candidate, can't find many references to it though. Any experience of it ?

David,

Especially in the November-December period common in poor or lightly manured grasslands and lawns, grassy spots in sand dunes and on roadsides. If it smells of cedar wood or Russia leather, it's C. russocoriaceus.

IME the Snowy Wax Cap can even be found with fresh snow on its caps and stiff frozen FB's.

Pleurotus ostreatus ...

... a species of which the mycelium needs a frost bite to fruit, invading living tissues of trees in winter, while the tree is in rest and can't defend itself.

Do you know what the one is I posted a bit further up?

Robin,

You mean the one in the "rubbish" photo ? If so, Armillaria ostoyae.

it is in the interest of biotrophic parasites to leave the tree alive ...

... because, as opposed to necrotrophic parasites, they die after killing the tree.

Armillaria mellea

Geastrum triplex

unknown : Camarophyllus niveus ?

............................

1/2/4/5/6/8 : Daedaleopsis confragosa on Salix

3 : Enteridium (= Reticularia) lycoperdon

9 : old Bjerkandera adusta ?

.........................

1. myxomycete Enteridium (= Reticularia) lycoperdon

2. old Bjerkandera adusta ?

3. ???

4. Xylaria polymorpha/longipes

And some more...

1/2 : Entoloma incanum

3/4 : Lepista personata (= L. saeva)

5/6 : Clitocybe nebularis

7/8 : Lepista nuda

9 : mycelium

Next set from same tree today.

Kat1e,

1 : Xylaria hypoxylon

2/7 : Ganoderma cf. pfeifferi

3/11/12 : Bjerkandera adusta

4 : old Polyporus species

5. Clitocybe nebularis

6/8 : Ganoderma species

9 : orange cluster of "dots" = Nectria peziza on old Polyporus species

10 : unidentifiable rotting fungus