Fungus

thanks gerrit thats a great piece lots of latin tables at the end which i can work on, but google translate only does the first page in link! cant apply it to the doc, can you give me the link to the whole doc so it translates in google?

No, you'll have to buy the document from the author or university, because it's not available to the public as a whole.

I want very much to know more about this very species dependant ecology.

Tony,

See this publication in German.

phenol based as is Armillatox?

Graham,

Armillatox is a pesticide, i.e. an environmental friendly herbicide, fungicide and insecticide of which the ingredients - apart from soap - are kept a secret, performing miracles if you believe what the producer claims on his website.

Note the fruit bodies that have been drilled out by woodpeckers, important roles are played by fungi.

The woodpeckers look for beetles and/or their larva, that have their habitat inside the brackets of these fungi.

A German beetle specialist last year published a study on the bracket species specific beetles of macrofungi. It turned out, that every species of annual or perennial bracket fungi has one or more fungus specific beetles living inside and/or on the brackets, which form an ecological niche on its own.

That's because Belgium is the 'Far West'

Tom,

Years ago, I had a call from the "inventor" and producer of Armillatox asking me if I could/would organize a testing and demonstration session in The Netherlands for which I was to be paid.

Two weeks afer my refusal to organize a demonstration, I was invited to come to Belgium, where they had allowed Armillatox to be tested on Armillaria infected trees.

would you say this is the same Stropharia species (allbeit younger) as posted earlier? Here on a mulch bed around a fine Davidia involucrata.

David,

Yes, it's the same species also known as Leratiomyces ceres, which spores travelled to Europe in the wool of sheep imported from Australia.

Had a few minutes to take these whilst removing damaged part of sycamore. and one reason why we were there

Gollum,

Were the grey blue winter oysters on the menu today ?

a few metres away there is a mature beech hedge, about 12 x 12 ft- would it be worth taking the smaller infected hedge out to try and stop spread ?

That could work provided the remaining beech hedge is not damaged at the trunk's base, but no positive results guaranteed.

Time to uncork the Armillatox then

Wonder why they have banned Armillatox from The Netherlands and the testing of the extremely toxic product on the continent toke place in Belgium.

Could it be because it kills all macrofungi and on the long run the tree too ?

Another fung from the same mulch bed today. Stropharia aurantiaca perhaps ?

.

1. fungus ... it's been causing the beech in a customers hedge to die over last year or two. firstly the leaves are stunted, then eventually plants rot at base. photos are of old brackets- apparently colour was mousey brown when fresh.

2. Fomes fomentarius

3. also what could be done to stop it spreading - poss dig up adjacent plants and remove soil?

1. With rusty brown spores ? If so, it's a perennial Ganoderma species such as G. lipsiense, causing an intensive white rot with selective delignification of the central wood column and (slow) die back of the tree.

2. F. fomentarius has white spores.

3. Nothing useful.

What I find of interest here is that I've been watching this tree (30m from my office window) and this is the very first time pre or since the mulch that Armillaria has turned up.

David,

With a well developed whitish ring with yellow scales at the lower side once the cap has opened up, this could also be the necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria mellea s.s. Without traces of a ring or "veil" it would probably be the saprotrophic A. lutea.

..................Oh dear !!!

David,

Judged from the picture, this looks like the saprotrophic Armillaria lutea (= A. bulbosa), a Honey Fungus using the downside of woodchips to spread/travel and decomposes cellulose to feed its rhizomorphs, that "dive under" once the tree base is reached and then start to white rot the heartwood of the tree from within without entering living tissue, which is shielded off by melanine plaques to prevent the tree to react.

Some more pics of Pholiota aurivella popping out on this lying stem.

Tom,

Nice , also see my Beech & Pholiota aurivella thread.

1. Hygrocybe marchii in short cut grass ...

2. Maybe Volvariella speciosa in long grass near Horse chestnut.

3. maybe Conocybe sp on mulch.

David,

1. ... with Entoloma sericeum among them

2. If the gills first are pink and then turn to dark brown, it's an Agaricus species : smell, bruising reddish or yellow ? Or with white gills and white spores, this could be a Leucoagaricus species.

3. Psathyrella conopilus

Just goes to show you can't trust Google images for anything, especially when looking up Dutch Mycologists

David,

I don't have a clue what you mean . Are you referring to the fact, that there are two Dutch mycologists with Keizer as a family name ?

Pics 9,10,11,12 : two different Lycoperdon species : L. lividum and L. foetidum (tingling metallic smell) ?

Pics 13,14 : Lepista species : L. irina (sweet aromatic smell) or L. luscina ?

For a service like the one you describe for work for me (and, I suspect, other contractors and consultants out there), it would need to satisfy the following:

1) It would need to be reactive: an ID would need to be turned around as quickly as possible, 2-3 days max;

2) It would need to be simple to take and provide a sample: I presume this would be straightforward enough, requiring a sterile sample jar and a suitable specimen?

3) Naturally, it would need to be cost-effective. As I mentioned above, we're already testing the client's credulity by saying a tree with a fungal bracket is worth saving, the cost would need to not discourage them further.

Scott,

4) And you need a protocol summing up the information (description, photo's, Picus, resistograph) needed on the specimen and the tree to identify the species, to avoid delay by extra communication, to facilitate a prognosis on the stability and condition of the tree and to make an advice on the management of the tree possible.

Looks to be a good Russula site, is it?

It is, especially for Russula and Lactarius species associated with Pinus and Betula.

I suppose shrooms rarely 'fit the mould'

So do people .

are these being actively managed & left to decay or on a site with no management? Did you note any specific decay organisms around this habitat?

David,

Left to decay on sight without management. The area is extensively grazed by Scottish Highland Cattle and the sanddunes are extremely dry and acid with Molinia caerulea (nitrification) and Calluna vulgaris, Erica tetralix, Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Empetrum nigrum as dominant plants associated with Ericaceae mycorrhizae, so the decay of the pines is done by a few generalists among the slow brownrotters capable of decomposition of coniferous wood without or with minimal soil contact.

The birch stump referred to is the one with C purpureum and purple jelly a couple of pages back

Sloth,

Flammulina velutipes.

Pics 9,10,11,12 : two different Lycoperdon species

Pics 13,14 : Lepista species ?

Second photo :

Clitocybe nebularis.

wood volumes/convertion rates required to generate large fruits are not avaliable when panic commences though surely?

In the case of annual necrotrophic parasitic species, no, but in the case of annual biotrophic parasitic species, such as P. squrrosa and M. giganteus, yes !