Fungus

Tony, Where the mycelium of K. deusta is stopped by the tree at the edge of sound wood, the black lines are tree based defensive barrier formations (compartmentalisation). Where the mycelium of Armillaria or Ganoderma has reached the edge of sound wood there is no formation of black lines by the tree as a defensive barrier. You can only tell how far the degradation of the wood goes by assessing the not very distinct line of where the white rot (with selective delignification) meets the sound wood. And black zones associated with Armillaria are plaques. Where mycelia of two or three of the fungi meet, the black line is the fungal barrier or territorial boundary.

1. On the European continent, no. Besides, which Nectria species are you referring to ? Not the species living on rotting Polypores (N. peziza), on Pyrenomycetes (N. episphaeria) or cow excrements (N. suffulta), I presume ? 2. I said Nectria cinnabarina is restricted to twigs and branches and never invades (the living tissues of) the stem or trunk (see the photo of Nectria cinnabarina and its anamorph Tubercularia vulgaris). 3. True, I use a microscope to ascertain which Nectria species I'm dealing with - for which one needs the teleomorphs - before I diagnose and assess the effects on the tree that can be attributed to the microscopically identified species. ---

1. As I said several times before, Nectria infections are not associated with black oozing. C. fagisuga is exclusively associated with the (later) presence of N. coccinea (see photo 1), that only causes bark deformations (see photo 2), i.e. not cankers. And only N. ditissima and N. galligena cause the formation of cankers (see photo 3 and 4) on beech. 2. IME with indigenous oaks on the European continent, no (see photo 5). 3. Sure, but the main cause of the infection with parasitic Armillaria on the European continent is excessive nitrification for which can not be compensated by whatever method used. 4. No (see 3). Besides, a forest is not a (managed) garden with trees and neither an arborist nor a forest ecologist is a gardener, I hope . ---

Cilla, Please post this type of questions next time under Tree Health Care. Without going into what the primary causes of the degradation of the root system were (see Paul Jenks' post), because of the typical lost of major roots (see photo), the pathogen causing the fall of the oak probably was Grifola frondosa. ---

1. Caused by what pathogen or pathogens ? 2. Of course not. Parasitic Armillaria's first kill and degrade the living tissues leaving behind a stable tree "corpse" before its mycelium starts decomposing dead wood outside in and for the first time fruits. 3. Yes, it's enough to trigger the further spreading of the rhizomorphs. 4. See 2.

That depends on the circumstances, for instance drought and the level of air and water polution (nitrification) play an important role. You must take into account, that Armillaria is a parasite reacting to disturbed conditions by acting as a process accelerator stopping the tree from becoming or being a parasite of its own tree species specific ecosystem because the tree no longer shares most of its self-produced sugars with the (symbiotic) partners depending on the tree. In The Netherlands and the western parts of Germany this far we've seen several hundreds of beeches and/or oaks in lanes, alongside local roads, on estates and at the edges of beech and oak woods of which the root systems have been infected and colonized by rhizomorphs. I have monitored an infected oak wood for eight years during which the presence of rhizomorphs on the roots of the trees increased from 40 % to 90 % because of extreme nitrification (manure). And because of that we have chosen for the proactive strategy of removing an infected lane or roadside tree and both its neighbours to prevent the rhizomorphs from spreading.

1. Left behind rhizomorphs of parasitic Armillaria that are still attached to remaining infected roots can detect damaged roots secreting growth hormones of neighbouring trees over a distance of one metre and grow towards them in a straight line at a speed of one metre a year. 2. Yes, it would. Armillaria would change its ways of reproduction into a dual strategy of panic fruiting from dead wood producing spores to disperse over long distance and sending out rhizomorphs in the soil to colonize the roots of new trees over short distance.

How close is this tree to other trees and if they are within 5 to 10 meters apart, are their root systems connected or grafted ? If so, I would advise to stop further spreading of rhizomorphs of the Armillaria by completely removing the tree and carefully removing its roots, removing 10 cubical metres of soil and filling the hole with "healthy" soil before replanting or wait for 5 to 10 years before planting a tree at all.

Cilla, Although the article is in Dutch, you could also have a look at the Dutch Raad method.

Inonotus radiatus.

No, I'm just warning you for the partially outdated content of the book, that's all.

Tony, Is there a new edition of the book or is it still the version that was published in 1991 and has not been updated since ?

You can order European Polypores I and II by Ryvarden & Gilbertson through nhbs fungiflora.

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Should of course be : an old Carpinus berceau .

Some photo's from last Sunday's visit to the "castle" or havezate Nijenhuis near Heino in The Netherlands. 1/2 : a veteran Lyriodendron tulipifera with two branches that rooted and formed trees of their own from branches bending down to the ground. 3 : an old Carpinus bercheau. ---

Ryvarden & Gilbertson : "Type of rot. Brown cubical rot of heartwood of butt and roots of living conifers. Thin, whitish resinous mycelial felts are present in shrinkage cracks. Substrata. Living conifers, also continuing decay and fruiting on dead trees, stumps and logs."

Because cutting the tree temporarely triggers speeding up the decay and reproductive process. And I've seen it fruiting from still standing dead coniferous trees at 2 to 3 meters height that died 5 to 10 years ago.

Tony, P. schweinitzii is a facultative or necrotrophic parasite, that can fruit from dead wood for many years.

I share the same experience.

A Pleurotus species, probably P. ostreatus.

Matt 1-2 : much to early for Armillaria, with brown spores probably Pholiota mutabilis. 3-5 : Psathyrella species.

QUOTE : by identifying the species from the extremely rare teleomorphs and because of that, N. galligena is often mistaken for N. ditissima. Besides, N. galligena only is partically agressive on Malus what about Fagus? As I said before, as long as N. galligena is not properly distinguished from the massive cankers on beech producing N. ditissima, the cankers on beech can not be attributed with certainty to N. galligena. QUOTE : N. cinnabarina is restricted to dead or living twigs and branches and does not invade living tissues of stems. it does enter (recently) living branches, on several species, such as beeches and oaks--is there a particular pathogen that paves the way for it? That's what I said, but you said before that it also invades stems. And IME there is no particular pathogen paving the way, in The Netherlands it's air pollution (nitrification) causing the weakening of the defensive systems of branches and twigs.

Sloth, 1. Yes : annual bracket fungi such as Laetiporus sulphureus --> Ceriomyces aurantius; Abortiporus biennis --> Ceriomyces terrestris; some Oligoporus species such as O. ptychogaster --> Ptychogaster alb(id)us (= P. fuliginoides) and the very rare and only recently discovered Ptychogaster anamorph of Oligoporus guttulatus. 2. They produce chlamydospores, which is part of an "ancient" dual reproduction strategy.

So now I lack a sense of humour too ?