Fungus

1. I told you before, if you're not experienced enough to know the difference between "crispy crusts" of K. deusta and "black foam rubber" or real look-a-likes of K. deusta, or between melanine plaques covering hyphae and other black smooth grows or black oosing pathogens, use a microscope to identify fungal microscopical structures such as hyphae and/or spores. 2. In Acer ? Not IME. 3. No need, he trusts my expertise opinion and advice.

Pete, Bayesian also meaning biased and scientifically invalid ?

Daniel, Have a nice time , by the looks of your kid on your avatar, I assume that won't be a problem .

Daniel, 1. It's all about context. See this post and the next posts of my thread on K. deusta on Acer. 2. Would you like to have your GP diagnose a physical health problem the same "snappy" way by just tapping you on the belly and concluding you're hollow without internal checking of the "cavity", assessing a crack in your .... , leave the pathogens unidentified and then telling you you're going to die and be removed ?

Which are both perennial species while Ben reports its annual appearance.

1. What (microscopical) evidence of the presence of K. deusta ? "thin layer of black material ... felt like foam rubber ..." is diagnosed as K. deusta and K. deusta is not a pathogen ? 2. Yes, I noticed that, but I asked what species of macrofungi it was and whether it was saprotrophic, biotrophic parasitic or necrotrophic parasitic ? 3. Again, this is how you "carefully" diagnose a tree and condemn it to be removed ? Does practice what you "teach" sound familiar ?

1. It was not in the first post ? "..., I first noticed signs of an Armillaria infection on the other side of this privately owned "red" Acer ... and then found ... K. deusta ... on the opposite side ..." 2. Three quarters of the trunk's base and up to 5 metres, while the other quarter was showings signs (cracks, bark shedding, melanine plaques) of an Armillaria infection of the cambium. 3. I didn't, I phoned the tree officer of the city of Groenlo and he informed them.

The now vertical downside of the superficial root system of a beech with the inside of the mayor roots and the central wood of the trunk's base completely white rotted and hollowed by the mycelium of Meripilus giganteus causing the tree to fail. ---

1. Reliable identification by whom and from photo's alone ? 2. Perenniporia fraxinea is perennial, has whitish spores and does not guttate.

Ben, The only reference to other tree species than oak you will find, is that I. dryadeus once has been collected from Abies in (former) Yugoslavia, once from Pyrus in Sweden and that it's common on Abies in western North America (Ryvarden & Gilbertson), so you probably have found I. hispidus on Robinia, which is not that exceptional.

Marco, 1. Trametes gibbosa. 2/3/4. Or C. aeruginosa (microscope).

1. Diagnosed as a pathogen ? Kd meaning Kretzschmaria deusta ? If so, microscopically checked ? If not, what (other) species and with what effects on the condition of the tree ? 2. Diagnosed as what species ? Saprotrophic ? Biotrophic or necrotrophic parasitic ? With what effects on the condition and/or stability of the tree ? 3. Removal without a proper and validated diagnosis ? "It seems worth the time to assess the risk with probing and measurement and looking at tree and targets before advising."

1. I'm experienced enough in both MTA and VTA of tree species such as Acer, Tilia and Aesculus infected with K. deusta (and a parasitic Armillaria on top of it) to refrain from suggesting the private owner of the tree to spend time and money on further assessment of the stability and the chances of survival of a tree next to a busy road with a constant stream of cars and bicycles with human targets in or on it. 2. Even if it was just Armillaria mellea, no, because it is a necrotrophic parasitic cambium killer mostly starting decomposing wood to produce FB's after the tree has died. Or do you refer to Acer macrophyllum, a species, I've never encountered in The Netherlands.

See my album on Phaeolus schweinitzii & Sparassis crispa.

Bob, See Canal du Midi trees to be felled due to plague, Ceratocystis platani and Death mature plane trees.

Tom, , so then you will recognize these rare bracket fungi from the field trip too.

Tony, Soft rot has never been documented from any Pholiota species (yet), so you need microscopical evidence to support your suggestion. IME, the brown decoloration of the white rot decay is caused by rain entering the acute fork from above or moisture accumulating in the wound cavity coming from aside or been transported inward by (the stipes of) the FB's sticking out (see photo). ---

Yes, up to the top of the piece of remaining wood to the left side in both photos (see the following photo for the total height of the remaining wood), which was about 2 metres from ground level and it went on into the soil for 60 cm, so the total height of the central decay was about 2.5 metres. This by the way is no exception, I've seen this kind of damage done to the central wood column of beeches by Meripilus several times without outside tree "body language" indications other then adventitious root development surrounding the trunk's base nurturing the foliage of the (central) crown and panic fruiting of the Meripilus between the buttresses after it had "dived under" for some years and that's why the risk of collaps of infected trees close to ground level is often overlooked or misinterpreted. ---

Tony, I assume you mean Diatrype stigma, a saprotrophic species that is, just like all other Pyrenomycetes or Sphaeriales, only capable of producing soft rot, which is in this case directed outside in. The central decay and cavity is caused by Pholiota aurivella, that is visible in the fifth picture fruiting from the opposite side of the trunk.

Some examples from a beech forest I monitored yesterday, of how much decay the mycelium of Pholiota aurivella can cause in bifurcated beeches or in the central wood column of beeches, with the mycelium only fruiting from the surface of the split or from old wounds of pruned branches after the tree has split because of the decay by P. aurivella or completely fallen because of an infection of the trunk's base with Meripilus giganteus. In the last photo, Diatrype stigma has already partially decorticated the beech and has started soft rotting the dead sapwood outside in.

Soft (brownish : sapwood) and white rotted (central wood column) beech at, above and below ground level by Meripilus giganteus. --

Because of the tree species mentioned, this can't be a mycorrhizal symbiont. With pink gills turning dark brown after ripening of the chocolate brown spores ? If so, a champignon, i.e. an Agaricus species.

Rob, 1. True, but ... 2. ... trees like Quercus robur and Salix, Populus and Tilia species optimize by naturally reducing and loosing (parts of) their crowns and/or trunks in interaction with brownrotters such as Laetiporus sulphureus or white rotters (with selective delignification) such as perennial Ganoderma species to survive as an individual or regenerate (clones) as a species.

1. No, it's based on the given of scientifically valid in vivo research on thousands of trees infected by parasitic Armillaria species. Remember "das grosse Waldsterben" in Germany and the Czech Republic and the Armillaria species responsible for it ? And why do you think these cambium killers are feared as the most aggressive pathogens in planted mono culture woodlands and forests ? 2. Decay in the sense of recycling all that is invested in a tree is the key process in keeping the food or energy chain of the tree species specific ecosystem balanced and intact. Parasitic fungi are the regulators or process accelerators of the forest ecosystem by killing trees, that have been damaged (storm, lightning, animals) or have reached the end of their natural life cycle and because of that have stopped being the "sugar daddy" for and have become a "parasite" of the tree species specific ecosystem in keeping most of the energy for itself and no longer sufficiently providing the tree's ecosystem with sugar polymeres to survive as a whole.

Tom, Adequate action - both for your client and for the credibility of yourself - taken after sound advice .