Fungus

A climber assessing it can indeed see it from all angles, and probe to ascertain living or dead tissues, thereby confirming necrosis, or not.

A climber ? It's at 2 metres above ground level !!!

I pruned a Liriodendron with M.g.

Please present microscopical evidence of Meripilus giganteus on Liriodendron, as according to my literature this would be a first ever on this tree species.

And how did you assess and document the white and soft rot caused by the supposed M. giganteus and the extent of the decay before and the stopping or continuation of the wood decomposition after the wounds were closing ? With your "magic mallet" ?

the view of the "canker" from here does not show definite signs of being dead tissue. That growth might be called a burl.

You may call it what you like, but I've seen all of it, i.e. not just from the side and it definitely is a necrotic bark and cambium canker.

Those fuzzy little rootlets definitely needed some help in forcing that fork apart! Even if wind and rain loading was shared by neighbors, that beech had its share.

Thanks for the armchair "theory" on a tree you didn't assess yourself and that didn't fail during rain and/or storm.

And as I said before, the ball of rootlets did get some help from the simultaneous white rot caused by and mycelial sheets or felts of Fomes fomentarius, that were before present in (the base of) the split.

if not lightning what could cause that?

In the first picture on oak, it seems to be associated with vertical splitting and cracking of bark by rhizomorphs of a necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species. Did you also assess black oozing spots on the trunk ?

In the pictures on beech, the vertical lesion or spiral crack could be caused by the inside activity of the mycelium or mycelial sheets or felts of Fomes fomentarius making the tree vulnerable for torsion twist by twirl winds.

Vectors aka stressors involved in codom tearouts ( ) often include wind and rain, not to mention a lack of supplemental support aka a cable . Expanding rootlets in that pic do look pretty muscular; a probable factor.

Thanks for your brilliant analysis of what caused a beech standing in the sheltered environment of a dense beech woodland to split and fail.

... knowledge of tree/fungi interactions ...

That's what it is all about , and that's what the "better Guy" obviously lacks and over and over again tells us a professional arborist does not need for a valid diagnosis and giving advice on management of either "black & white" or shades of "gray & brown" trees just waiting for our chainsaws to bring them down ASAP .

Matt,

10,11 : Mycena/Hemimycena species

14,15,16 : Hebeloma species

17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28 : Melanoleuca species

29,30,31 : Macrolepiota species

32,33 : Psathyrella species

34,35,36,37,38 : Agrocybe rivulosa

39,40,41,42 : Psathyrella cf. conopilus

47,48,49,51,52,53 : Crepidotus species

55,56,57,58 : Psathyrella species

Matt,

4,5,6 : Macrolepiota mastoidea

7,8,9 : Collybia dryophila

10,11 : Agaricus species

12,13,14,15 : Stereum gausapatum

22,23,24,25 : Coprinus atramentarius

26,27,28,29,30 : Lepista nuda

Gloeophyllum trabeum? or sepiarium? trabeum looks about right

David,

Or G. abietinum ? Not enough developed to be certain about one of these three G. species.

I'm also very interested to hear the info about Trametes, there appears to be no info in the text books I'm referencing to a Bjerkandera adusta/Trametes gibbosa link. Is this a connection you have made yourself over time? or do i need to update my ref. material??

Craig,

Yes, you have, as it was first published in 1996 in the Dutch edition of my Encyclopaedia of Fungi (Rebo, 1997). Also see all of my posts on succession of saprotrophic macrofungi.

What in your opinion made the fork fail in the first instance? Presence of Fomes or was there an additional vector involved?

Marco,

In that order, the Fomes mycelium white rotted the bottom of the poor union, after which the rootlets developed, that split the base of the fork until one fork failed under the outward pressure and fell down.

I've just come across this whilst climbing a mature Beech to check for poor unions. Very high value targets beneath (children) and in regular use too. Pictures taken at 10 meters or so. The internal and external shots are within 1 meter of each other.

Craig,

This is Bjerkandera adusta, an annual saprotrophic bracket fungus decomposing heart wood with polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

On beech, it is often followed by Trametes gibbosa (see photo), that first kills the mycelium of the Bjerkandera and then continues to decay the wood with a mostly slow developing simultaneous white rot after some time making the tree trunk and (parts of) its crown unstable, which implicates, that the damage to the tree has to be assessed and monitored at a regular basis.

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Beech leaves with shadow puppet.

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Documentation of a bifurcated beech with first fruiting of Fomes fomentarius after half of the fork came down, with in the centre of the second photo a ball of adventitious rootlets rooting in the moist and decayed wood at the bottom of the split forcing the forks apart.

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I was working in a garden in the last couple of weeks where I came across a Beech with buckiling creases at the base. I have read through the book Manual of Wood Decays in Trees by K. Weber and C. Mattheck. I understand that it is ony white rot that causes the bucklilng creases and the tree lays down wide annual rings.

Can someone expand on this and explain it a bit more like what white rot is it? Would a tree need to come down because of the stresses on the cambuim or simply should you just watch it and look for secondary effects?

Someone who I was working with at the time mentioned that he had to fell a lot of beechs with these buldges and they were hollow inside.

Scott,

Without pictures hard to say what type of bulge formations or buckling creases you mean and what fungi with what type of woodrot causes them. Besides, some of these phenomenons and the pathogens causing them are not included in Weber & Mattheck's book.

thats a shame because i cant see me being back there anytime in the near future.

just have to move on to the next...

David,

That really is a shame because it looks like it could develop into something special.

And moving on to the next, you've reached Oudemansiella mucida.

Magnificant view from below on the slope and top of Mount Scleroderma.

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Clitopilus pleurotelloides as a possible ...

... if it has pinkish spores, Pleurotellus chioneus if it has pale yellow spores, Panellus mitis if it has white spores and grows on coniferous wood, etc. : microscope.

Edible?

Yes, but also causing an asthma attack when to much spores are inhaled by people with sensitive lungs.

the next instalment

David,

This annual (?) fungus still is so much in its early stages of development, that it is not (yet) possible to put a name to it.

... spores ... looks like a cinnamonny spore colour underneath that top bracket, so it could be a Gano sp. possibly G. applantum ... to be sure, you need a microscopic analysis of the spores to give a 100% correct identification

Rob,

and I would expect this to be an annual Ganoderma species, such as G. resinaceum.

Think he means blister packaging, like the clear rigid plastic on stuff you buy?

:thumbup: .

... spore print ... Are you willing to divulge your thoughts on what it could be? Is it common/rare etc.?

Sean,

Spore prints are best made by putting a stipeless cap on a thin sheet of transparent plastic (from blisters), so you can either put a piece of black or white paper underneath to determine the colour. And no, I'm not, let's take one step at the time, shall we ?

Possibly Gymnopilus, Coprinus & Agaricus sp

David,

Gymnopilus sp. = Lacrymaria lacrymabunda (= Psathyrella velutina) and Coprinus sp. = C. atramentarius.