Fungus

And, ... did he yet hand it over to you or do you need to bring the mafioso out ?

Next typical Dutch question then. Did they assess plants having a "sense" of humour too, because my plants have a good laugh when I tell a killing of aphids involving joke, that is, as long as I keep the scissors in the drawer .

That's because Fistulina causes a moist and incomplete brownrot of a type, that resembles the soft rot type of modification of wood, and Laetiporus a brittle dry cubical brownrot leaving only lignin behind.

Again my poor English is playing tricks on me, I meant only once on Robinia, which is a first ever with this tree species as a host, and quite often on beech, in The Netherlands especially on trees, which have been under shellfire and hit during WW II. ---

Gollum, Nice one , I once found it on Robinia pseudoacacia (see photo). ---

Tony, Following your valid line of reasoning, shouldn't the first hypothesis be the other way around, as Fistulina does not decompose heartwood, but vinegar acid rich sapwood, before it moves on his way out via the radial rays ?

Looks like a broomrape (Orobanche species) to me. If so, what surrounding plant species could it be a parasite of ?

It must (again) be my poor English , I meant to say, that it only (sometimes) forms (pseudo)sclerotia, if the trunk or branch is in soil contact with the forest floor .

Gollum, It's Trametes gibbosa.

Sloth, If you come to my place, I'll show you a plant in my living room, that sweats and curses every time it "senses", that I get the scissors out . And you're invited to bring your wife too . And did the polygraph test include assessing the plants telling lies too .

In The Netherlands, of findings of P. quercinus is no documention, so it may - because of the lack of veteran oaks - not even be present at all. P. robustus on the other hand, is quite common on middle aged solitary or lane trees of Quercus robur and Q. rubra, and recently also is a biotrophic parasite of Robinia pseudacacia.

Tom, Now you do, have a look at this photo and description of Polyporus tuberaster to see, that Tony was wrong. This far, you only found P. squamosus, because P. tuberaster only fruits from horizontal trunks and thick branches with soil contact on the forest floor, while sometimes forming (pseudo)sclerotia (in Dutch : zwamstenen) incorporating sand, roots and stones in the soil, which are called "pietra fungaia" in Italy. If a sclerotium is dug up/out and put in a pot with moist earth inside and on top, one can harvest the fruitings for a couple of years.

David, Ash : 1. L. amethystina is an ectomycorrhizal symbiont associated with beech and oak, ash is associated with endomycorrhizal microfungi. 2. The combined photo shows Paxillus involutus and a slimy wax cap or Hygrophorus species (?) with a "pissebed" on its gills, Paxillus involutus is a generalistic and Hygrophorus species are tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi. 3. Collybia confluens = C. peronata. 4. a small number of brown/grey capped shrooms : looks like a Russula, maybe R. amoenolens, which is mainly associated with oak. Conclusion : the Fraxinus trunk's base surrounding soil must be invested with (adventitious) roots of oak and/or beech.

1. Simple, by mowing and removing the grass twice a year and the second time about a month before the fruiting season of the ectomycorrhizal macrofungi starts and using low weight mowing machines. The verges are 2-4 metres, and the canal banks, including the slopes, are 4-8 metres wide. 2. I know, that's why it took me 35 years of field research to get a bit of a notion of the dynamics of and succession in tree species specific ecosystems and tree species specific life cycles. Or did you mean to say, you want the terms shortened to : the tsssp of tsse including the tsssfw and the tssem ? 3. As long as my DVD on the MTA-method, including the concept of the Tree Species Specific Ecosystems of indigenous trees, is not published, because of (©), I'm not "spilling all the beans" in advance. So you'll have to take my word for it, that tree species specific succession of tree related and/or dependend organisms in tree species specific ecosystems, which have evolved over hundreds thousands of years, is rather determinate and resistent to alteration or adaptation, provided, the circumstances do not suddenly and/or dramatically change with the effect of completely unbalancing the ecosystem. Why else do you think most of our often "exotic" urban tree species, which go without their natural habitats and ecosystems, never really thrive in our managed concrete and polluted environments and lead such a poor and short "pot plant's" life ? Could it be, because they even after decades following their introduction, can't fully adapt to an unnatural situation extremely different from "the green green grass of home" ? And yes, of course I am speaking in a broader scope, i.e. a forest ecological context, where trees are the main provider ("sugar daddy") of the entire forest ecosystem with a multitude of other organisms depending on them. To share a bit of information on the succession of tree species specific saprotrophic macrofungi and the species associated with forest fires and burned wood (link included on the page), and the role they play in wood decomposition and recycling to keep the forest's food chain intact, see : Succession of saprotrophic wood degrading macrofungi. 4. Nice one , though incomplete, as it considers a tree to be a highly independent individual organism without implicating a forest ecological or tree species specific ecosystem viewpoint.

Some examples of the succesion of tree species specific saprotrophic macrofungi, each contributing to decomposition and recycling of dead wood, leaves/needles or fruits of deciduous and coniferous tree species in different phases of the life cycle of the trees. Decomposition and recycling of pine wood follows three phases of decomposition (Jahn, 1979) : - the initial phase, starting 1-1.5 years after felling, in which Phlebiopsis gigantea, Stereum sanguinolentum (*) and Trichaptum abietinum (*) are the dominant decomposers, - the optimal phase, starting 2-4 years after felling, when Calocera viscosa (*), Gymnopilus penetrans (= G. sapineus) (*), Hypholoma (= Psilocybe) capnoides (*), Paxillus atrotomentosus (*) and Tricholomopsis rutilans (*) are dominant, - the final phase, starting 6-7 years after felling, with Pseudohydnum gelatinosum (*) as last species. - Pine cones are (partially) decomposed by Strobilurus tenacellus (*), S. stephanocystis and Auriscalpium vulgare (*), followed or accompanied by Baeospora myosura (*), which - together with S. esculentus - also decomposes spruce cones. Xeromphalina campanella (*) mainly decomposes Picea wood. - Micromphale perforans (*) and Mycena rosella (*) are among the species specializing on spruce needles. - Hericium flagellum (photo 1) only fruits on/from 400-600 years old horizontal trunks of Abies with soil contact. The three successive phases of decomposition of beech wood are (Runge, 1972) : - the initial phase, starting 0.5-1 years after felling, in which Bisporella antennata, B. pallescens, Diatrype stigma (*), Chondrostereum purpureum (*), Cylindrobasidium evolvens, Ascoryne sarcoides (*), Neobulgaria pura (*), Bulgaria inquinans (*) and Ascotremella faginea (*) are the dominant decomposers, - the optimal phase, starting 2-2.5 years after felling, in which Bjerkandera adusta (*), Lenzites betulinus (photo 2 : top with Panellus stipticus below) and Trametes versicolor (*) are the dominant species, - the final phase, starting more then 7 years after felling, with Hypholoma (= Psilocybe) sublateritium (*), Polyporus brumalis (*), Psathyrella hydrophila (*), Pluteus cervinus (*), Kretzscharia (= Ustulina) deusta (*), Xylaria hypoxylon (*) and X. polymorpha (*) as dominant species. - The genus Xylaria is both generalistic (see final phase beech) and tree species specific : X. longipes (*) is restricted to Acer wood, X. oxyacanthae (*) (and Monilinia johnsonii (*)) to kernels of (buried) mummified haws of Crataegus and X. carpophila (*) to capules of beech nuts. - Acorns of Quercus robur are decomposed by Ciboria batschiana (*) and Hymenoscyphus fructigenus (*), shells of sweet chestnuts by Rutstroemia echinophila (*) and (buried) mummified male catkins of alder by Ciboria amentacea (*). - Trichopeziza sericea (*) and Hymenochaete rubiginosa (*) only or mainly live on stumps of oak, Catinella olivacea (*) on rotting stumps and trunks of poplar and willow, Diatrype bullata (*) is a pioneer on fallen dead branches of willow, D. disciformis (*) of fallen dead branches and Hypoxylon fragiforme (*) of fallen dead braches and trunks of beech, etc. And for the succession of species on burned wood and fire sites, see : Forestfires and macrofungi. Descriptions and photo's of all (*) marked species can be found in/on my encyclopaedia and CD-rom. H. Jahn (1979). Pilze die an Holz wachsen. Busse, Herford. GJ. Keizer (1997). Encyclopaedia of Fungi. Rebo. G.J. Keizer (2001/2010). The Interactive Guide to Mushrooms and other Fungi. CD-rom. ETI BioInformatics (UvA/UNESCO), Amsterdam/Leiden. A. Runge (1972). Pilzsukzession auf Laubholzstümpfen. Z. Pilz. 41 : 31-38. ---

Marco & Tony, If on oak, Tony is right , I was mislead by "The fast majority were on conifer with only one or two on broadleaves" and did, because of the round and compact shape of the FB's (see below photo of S. laminosa) and the assumption it was on conifer, not consider G. frondosa, but anyhow, nice pictures .

In The Netherlands, we have the same experience with the same species of pioneer trees, which spread by wind or birds, and without further measures or management easily colonize coal tip sites, which have been left behind bare and unplanted for a while.

Hard to give a name to all of them, because for some species, there's to little information on the characteristics, but here we go anyway. 1/3 : Amanita muscaria 4 : Coprinus comatus 5/6 : Fomitopsis pinicola ? 8/9 : Phellinus hartigii ? if so, rare ! 17 : Boletus species 20/21/22 : Sparassis laminosa very rare !!! 23 Boletus species

... or P. punctatus.

Tony, Great and valuable documentation . Sure it is, though I'm not the best judge of that, as the species in The Netherlands is very rare, obviously because we have so few veterans oaks (left), and because according to Weber & Mattheck, in Germany it mainly fruits on urban trees without well-developed tree species specific ecosystems, but that's maybe why the oaks are so easily colonized.

I have monitored a lot of parks, broad verges of cycle tracks or (dirt) roads and canal banks in semi-urban aereas and assessed how f.i. middle aged beeches went through all the tree species specific successive phases of tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi, such as Amanita, Tricholoma, Russula and/or Lactarius species and boletes. There even is a Dutch canal bank with beech, common oak and a lot of red oak with so many rare spine fungi (Hydnaceae), that it's now under protection of a strict regime of mowing without damaging the fungi, mosses or trees and it is forbidden to park in between the trees to prevent compaction. And if an urban tree is not in good health and you don't know what the problem is, nor how to solve it, go back to its original habitat and tree species specific ecosystem to find out what the tree species needs to thrive and go through the successive phases of its tree species specific life cycle.

And nothing on the (short term) detrimental effects on Malus ? Also see Inonotus strategies.

Yes, I already noticed, so after looking through my tree hosts of Phellinus species files, one can choose between P. contiguus or P. punctatus, which both mostly are resupinate, and P. robustus, which mostly is ungulate to applanate, or P. torulosus, which mostly is sessile to pileate, so a bracket has to be taken down for (microscopical) identification.

Ben, Definitely a (partially resupinate) Phellinus species, but what tree species is it on : ash, oak, poplar, Robinia ?

1. "Consummating" the marriage would mean they only temporarely made a "merging" connection called intercourse , if they would graft, it would be like a pathological "symbiotic" and smothering relationship among human partners called collusion. And I don't think the lime root has the strength to compete with the oak trunk to such an extent, that it will damage or kill the oak. 2. Yes, it would and as a reaction it would intensivy the decomposition of the wood by the mycelium to short or long term compensate for the loss of the annual or perennial reproductive organs, see : warning and panic fruiting of macrofungi. 3. Not one, but two mistakes, both "buttocks" and "buttraces" should - of course - have been buttresses , but how would the Dutch term "wortelaanzetten" of "wortelhalzen" have been understood and interpreted ? 4. The extreme circumstances are not that much different from the situation in undisturbed soils, as is documented in the first photo and the following text, and in "das grosse Waldsterben" of spruce forests in the border region of German and Czech Bavaria. And the follow up of the Bavarian research showed, that by using this "harvesting" method of about half of the spruces, within five years all still standing spruces were infected and partially killed by Armillaria ostoyae. 5. In The Netherlands, for urban trees (beech, lime) we prefer to use jute or burlap. 6. All this knowledge (climate change, meteorology, air and water pollution, human caused compaction of soil and damage to trees, etc.) is included in the concept of the dynamics of tree species specific ecosystems, f.i. see the synopsis of my article in Der Tintling. 7. No, they don't, but mimicking their natural habitats and tree species specific ecosystems as much as possible will certainly not harm them.