Fungus

And this is what it looks like 25x magnified through my new digital photo and video microscope. I also made 30 seconds of footage of a larva of a mining moth eating his way through a rust and a mite walking about the leave, but it (alas) has to many Mb's to enable uploading and showing it here. ---

David, Nice picture of a Harvestman (Opiliones), probably Phalangium opilio, and the red "eggs" are parasitic mites.

It did, but this was over 30 years ago and my just bought first Praktica mirror reflex camera was only used for shooting lots of pictures (slides) of my toddler daughter .

And this time I can second that with being 90 % sure without using a microscope .

Cassian, 1. Were both types of resupinate FB's anamorphs or teleomorphs and did you check them microscopically ? 2. As K. deusta slowly "works his way" inside out and it take years before it becomes parasitic and FB's show up on the outside, and because of the symptoms you describe, I would sooner expect Cryphonectria species to be closer related to parasitic Nectria species, such as N. coccinea, N. fuckeliana and N. ditissima, which in the first phase of infection cause bark cankers and dying of living tissues after which the bark comes off. 3. Does it only affect gum trees associated with endomycorrhizae, or are Eucalypt species associated with ectomycorrhizae also infected ?

Pip, Nothing new there then, as in The Netherlands there also is an ever increasing number of landscape architects or designers, who consider themselves to be "artists" first, producing planting plans without having a clue of forest ecology, let alone of the tree species specific ecosystems and life cycles, nor of the tree species specific soil food webs including mycorrhizal fungi. And we have television programs on gardening hosted by "professional gardeners" with own websites and books, who are payed for recommending all kinds of commercial products "improving" growth and health of trees, including mycorrhiza preparations.

Nice , how crazy can they get . In the playground of the school, where my wife used to work, was a poplar trunk with G. lipsiense on it. Over the years, the trunk was turned over several times with the result, that in the end the newly formed brackets were attached to the original parent FB's in seven different positions or directions.

Definitely frost and in The Netherlands also extreme drought.

Pip, Concerning the present situation in the U.K., see the latest OPM update and Oak Processionary Moth. And adding to my former post on clump planting of trees. Always imply the characteristics of the natural tree species specific habitats or ecological niches the tree species is part of or dominates in analyzing and determining what a tree species needs to thrive and survive in an "outside" forest, i.e. urban situation.

No, I don't, although I do sometimes work with/for SBB in the Achterhoek and Twente region.

Rover, Thanks, I just noticed it myself so this will be 1002. And I'm a native Achterhoeker living in Berkelland.

Pip, 1. In a (natural) forest situation with trees in different phases of the tree species specific life cycles, root-root contact of same species trees in tree species specific ecosystems both has positive and negative consequences : positive being a single tree exceding endo- and/or ectomycorrhizal defensive system as part of the tree species specific forest soil food web and negative being roots providing a stepping stone for (secundary) root parasites or pathogens such as (rhizomorphs of) Armillaria species or Ceratocystis platani (Platanus) once the trees are in poorer condition because of (mechanical) root or buttresses damage, compaction, drought, nitrification, salt intoxication or above ground plagues or pests. The positive aspects are hardly ever achieved in (peri) urban environments, the negative aspects are standard for any urban environment. 2. Most (mining) moth species cannot fly very far, so clump planting facilitates fast spreading over short distance, which is the case in The Netherlands with OPM travelling along oak lanes while "jumping" from tree to tree.

David, As a perennial FB, yes, but not as a living fungus, as this still is a 2.400 years old mycelium (with rhizomorphs) of Armillaria ostoyae in Oregon, with a total span of 2.200 acres or 880 hectares.

Rob, In oaks, yes.

I have no experience with any Cryphonectria species affecting eucalypts. Maybe this article is of any help ? And there seems to be no treatment for these aggressive pathogens.

In oak, white rotters with selective delignification such as Ganoderma australe, predominantly change the flexibility/stiffness ratio to the extent, that the trunk becomes more flexible at the level of the central wood decay causing reaction wood to be formed, which shows itself as rather smooth barked local shell buckling ("life belts" or "love handles") on the outside, often accompagnied by (not yet visible) vertical shear cracks and lesions (torsion twist) on the inside. When white rotted oaks break and fall, unaffected parts of the trunk often stay behind as long pointed vertical remains of intact wood. Brown rotters such as Laetiporus sulphureus, however, change the flexibility/stiffness ratio in such a way, that the trunk is confronted with a loss of stiffness and a local vertical weight overload because of demolition of the central wood column. Because of this, the reaction wood is pressed outside showing itself as extreme buckling zones with at first vertical cracks and later on horizontal cracks. In this phase, the tree becomes vulnerable of windthrow and when it falls, it breaks off almost completely horizontally without leaving much intact wood behind.

- C. micaceus s.l., including the species with an ozonium such as C. domesticus s.l., yes. - C. disseminatus yes, but also on humus rich soil. - C. atramentarius, yes, but it could also be its look-a-like C. acuminatus. - on woodchips (and humous soil) : C. plicatilis, C. leiocephalus, C. auricomus, C. lagopus, C. flocculosus, etc.

1. No, and I don't know anyone else (besides Roger Phillips ?) using it. 2. Why for ... sake ? There goes international standardization of sporee colour down the drain. As I can't compare the colour range used by Phillips with the range used by Kränzlin, I only can summarize the total range of the 24 colours he uses, which is 0 Y (white) through 40 Y, 18 M, 3 C (yellowish cream) to 80 Y, 40 M (dark ochre), with Y being yellow, M magenta or red and C cyan or blue, and that's as dark as it gets with Russula and Lactarius.

Correction, I should have used the term Acute Oak Decline, of which the pathogen is still unidentified, instead of Sudden Oak Death, which is caused by P. ramorum, a pathogen not only attacking oaks, but many other tree species such as Larix and Rhododendron. Also see : this post.

Methuen Handbook of Colour, Munsell Soil Colour Book and genus specific books on Russula and Lactarius, such as F. Kränzlin (2005). Pilze der Schweiz, Part 6 (page 15), which uses the Y-M-C coding of the EURO-scala of printers.

David, Depending on the colour of the sporee, I use white or black paper (see : Sporees), but I prefer using plastic from blisters (over glass), because one can cut the plastic in the shape needed to cover a water filled glass or jar and easily make a hole in the center to put the stem through, so its base touches the surface of the water in the jar. And afterwards, the sporee can be sealed with adhesive tape and fitted with the colour of background needed.

Not just urine of dogs, but urine of all kinds of mammals, including human beings. And of all the more then 100 British Coprinus species, only a few are final wood or wood chips decomposers, the majority lives on humus or nitrogen rich grasslands and soil, fire sites, rotting grass or compost heaps and excrements of cows, sheep, goats, horses, wild boars, deer and roe.

Fistulina hepatica only lives in/on Quercus robur (and Castanea sativa), because its mycelium needs the vinegar acids from the annual sap wood rings to grow inside outward before it starts producing mycotoxins, with which the cambium is killed, so it cannot be found on Q. rubra, as it lacks the necessary high concentration of vinegar acids (also see : Album Fistulina hepatica). Besides, the mycelium of F. hepatica causes a bark necrosis, which is distinctly different from the buckling caused by L. sulphureus.

Not chatting, but kissing, this "Siamese twin" oak. ---

Photo 1. Sporulation of Ganoderma lipsiense on birch. Photo 2. Sporulation of Macrolepiota procera. ---