Fungus

This image with plating poses a difficult thing for me to ponder still feeling some doubt these lines are tree based barrier formations as opposed to fungal barriers

Principles here being Kretzschmaria (late to the table) and ganoderma applanatum first player, also armillaria starting to move in to remaining cambium spaces.

So, if these black zone lines are the tree and not the interactions of the fungi, why do they demark the colonised zones and not present within the zones of individual colonisations via bot G. applanatum and K. deusta?

Why are there no lines in each colonised section?

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. Does Nectria typically pop up in fissures in the UK? And is it generally a weak parasite?

2. Fungus I believe said that it never invades live wood. I've seen it enter live branches with no outward sign of other pathogens paving the way,

3. but then again I am not looking as closely as he is!

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.

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1. Attributed to Nectria sp. " In North America, the disease results when the beech scale insect, Cryptococcus fagisuga, attacks the bark, creating a wound. Later, two different fungi (Nectria coccinea var. faginata and Nectria galligena) common to North America can invade the tree through the wound, causing a canker to form."

2. So the question is, will trees respond to the exposure/drying protocol, done successfully on tree crops, by compartmentalizing the infection? Quercus alba in the disturbed landscape has closed Armillaria infections, with no sign of interior decay, even to a tomograph.

3. Don't factors like condition, vitality, location, site moisture, and strength of inoculum, play a part in the rate and inevitability of infection?

4. Could the culturing of compatible/symbiotic plants reduce nitrogen levels enough to make a difference?

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 .

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Welcome to give your expertize and clever thoughts on why this oak fell some nights ago!

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.

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1. it resembles what is called "beech bark disease".

2. Has significant strength been lost yet?

3. Is 10% really enough to throw the pathogen (Arm or...) into an aggressive fury?

4. did you see how deep decay went

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.

But wouldn't that approach be more appropriate for a garden or somewhere where there is little biodiversity within the soil and tree stock giving the honey the upper hand?

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. Really how necessary is it to remove all the contaminated soil?

2. Would stress induced from a reduction give the Armillaria an advantage?

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.

Large Beech next to the driveway of a small estate i look after. Driveway within a couple of feet that has been re-surfaced several times over the lifetime of the tree.

Recently noticed a section of decay on the driveway side of the trunk (after a small bit of falling deadwood knocked the necrotic bark off). The decayed area is approx 2' wide and 6' tall, the area above the dead bark and mushy cambium has areas exuding a black/brown substance.

So, Armillaria? Crown reduction? Removal?

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.

I have used Kochs since it is recognized by justice, but I think I will change next time. We have a discussion in Scandinavia on what to use since many years, I think we are ready to make one or two models become The Ones soon.

Cilla,

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

Anyone know what this fungi is on common Alder?

Inonotus radiatus.

Do you know of a better book on the subject from a broad view on the evolution and ecology?

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

F. Allen Ecology of mycorrhizae

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 ?

Thats why I suggested you should add them to your library. Invaluable data you should add them to the book club

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

That tulip tree looks to be a pollard, in fact I would swear by it!

.

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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.

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as till now I didnt think it would fruit on deadwood

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."

why does it panic fruit from cut logs then? ive never seen living fruits on dead trees either?

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.

I once felled a very large pine with no evidence of Phaeolus in the bottom 10 metres but fruitbodies at a wound at that hieght with some decay. so it is capable of top rot with no evidence low down. I have seen it panic fruit for the first time from the rootplates of trees that blew out by the rootplate (because the wood was over thinned) with no decayed roots evident. this suggests that its prefered entry is via roots but as a biotrophic parasite one may assume it has no real interest in focusing on merely roots and killing the host too quickly. In my experience most failures occure due to the T/R rule of the stem rather than root failures

Tony,

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

Have often seen P. schweinitzii fruiting from internal decay at considerable height on stems of pines & cedars.

Not just confined to root & basal region.

I share the same experience.

ID these fruiting bodies

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.

1. Do any other principle wood decay fungi have an anamorph form?

2. What are the benefits/why would the fungi do this, does it produce spores even?

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.

I thought perhaps, you had a sense of humour .

So now I lack a sense of humour too ?