Fungus

Tom, Depending on the tree species (f.i. Aesculus, Prunus), it sometimes does. Guttation is part of the strategy of mycelia of some species of bracket fungi (f.i. Inonotus species, Laetiporus sulphureus, Fomitopsis pinicola) to withdraw fluids from the tree, which are then secreted via the brackets, thus locally hightening the concentration of enzymes with which the wood is decomposed, which makes the process more efficient for the mycelia.

Tom, 1. Phlebia radiata (= P. merismoides). 2. Probably Ramaria stricta.

In this phase of wood decay, the decomposition of once living tissue of the tree is almost always done by melanine covered mycelium of the necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species, so after shedding the bark, there might be no (more) rhizomorphs present. And keep in mind, that superficial decomposition of cambium and wood by Armillaria species can "hide" massive inside decay and hollowing of the tree trunk without outside signs or body language symptoms, as can be seen in the pictures of some of the beeches in my thread on beech and Honey Fungus, on which also the black melanine coverage of the mycelium is visible.

Sean, Any pictures of the trunk base after it was felled ?

Tom, Ganoderma australe with guttation droplets.

Which I second without hesitation, so what will be the next step ?

Possibly, though I'm not sure wether it is not (also) caused by the enzymes produced by the mycelium of Armillaria to decompose cellulose with.

Tony, I think you mean this type of "moist" pale brownish rot (photo 1), as is also caused by I. cuticularis in beech, on which in the end phase of wood decay Hericium coralloides may fruit (photo 2).

1. Did you taste it ? Very bitter, smelling like Heterobasidion annosum and without blue tones : P. stiptica, not bitter and with blue tones : P. caesia, or maybe both ? 2. Hard to say, could be Physisporinus vitreus or an annual resupinate poroid FB of another species.

Convincing enough .

Tony, Together with I. nodulosus, yes, it is. 1- I. cuticularis has two main strategies of colonizing beeches, the way as is shown in your photo and my first two photo's and the way as is depicted in my last photo. 5- T. rutilans , but it can not have fruited from the beech, as it is a saprotrophic species of dead coniferous wood. 7- Probably a Tubulifera, but to "unripe" to identify as T. arachnoides.

David, Of course it is , but tell me, how do you British keep your mycoflora databases clean of faulty identifications, if no microscopical evidence and storage of well documented and described collections in qualified herbaria is demanded ? In The Netherlands, before the "standard list" of Dutch macrofungi was published in 1995 and the first Red List in 1996, we had a review of all official herbarium collections, after which a lot of the collections from the national herbarium had to be removed because of faulty identification, which could not be restored because of insufficient documentation. Nowadays, findings of all very rare to extremely rare and/or Red List species have to be identified by specialists, if the identification of the species is a "tough case", or to be checked by a specialist if a second opinion is asked for, to be accepted for the mycological data base.

As I understood after I posted my request for a photo. And to answer to your challenging invitation, cut down an ever so nice mycological monument, no thanks .

John, Nice, but I meant the inside of the trunk base .

Rob, Castanea or Aesculus ? And where are the conkers located ? Any pictures ?

John, So you can skip answering my before question then, as I do like mycological monuments a lot .

Scottie, Would you describe the smell, which IME only comes from the pale brown coloured (photo) and not from the white rotted and decomposed wood of trunks of Quercus robur, as musty, just as the FB's of Armillaria reek ? ---

John, Any pictures of the trunk base at the level of the Gano brackets ?

Nice histories of folklore, Graham, to which I add the following true tales. 1. "Getting pissed" comes from people drinking the urine of others, who had eaten dried Fly Agarics for shamanistic ceremonial or war preparing purposes, to experience (some of) the hallucinatory effects of the psychoactive constituents of the red fleece (Golden Fleece, Holy Grail, Avalon) of the cap, which the after consumption of the mushrooms secreted urin contained. In Hungary, they use the expression "he or she must have been eating from the "Bolund gomba" (= Fly Agaric) for people acting crazy or being "under the influence". 2. In The Netherlands, before Sunday morning, farmers decorated the dirt floor of the stable, which was attached to the main house, with figures made of different colours of sand. The well to do farmers used black and white pebbles, they stored during the week. 3. When you're too late for dinner, in my country they say, that you "will find the dog in the pot". 4. In the middle ages, Dutch farmers covered festering wounds with the green mould (of a Penicillium species) growing on old bread, which mostly cured the (bacterial) infection within some days. It was not until Fleming discovered antibiotics, that the effect of the mould was explained. They also used ear wax to seal off and "sterilize" open wounds with.

Good point , no never.

And a living beech, of which the trunk base is decomposed and hollowed by A. mellea and a remaining trunk base of a beech, which has completely been decomposed inside by the melanine covered mycelium of A. mellea, of which the melanine plaques still are present, before it fell during a storm. ---

A dead beech killed by A. mellea two years ago, which is now also being decomposed by Bjerkandera adusta (polyaromatic hydrocarbons) at the base of the trunk (photo 2) and by B. adusta (gray brackets) and Stereum hirsutum (yellowish FB's) higher up the tree (photo 3). ---

Two other examples of beeches in the first phase of infection showing cracking or shedding of bark. ---

Second some photo's of a partially living and still standing beech, of which the trunk base has been decomposed and made extremely unstable by Armillaria mellea. ---

With this post, a thread on the interaction between Fagus sylvatica and Armillaria mellea s.s. (or A. ostoyae) is started, where documention of tree species specific reactions to infections with necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species can be shared. First two photo's of the primal phase of infection with rhizomorphs and/or melanine covered mycelium causing folded and/or cracked bark zones or first shedding of bark. The whitish spots on the trunk in the first picture mark the places where Armillaria mellea has been fruiting the year before. ---