Fungus

Not body language, but root language of a fallen and uprooted Quercus robur. ---

Also see : Body language Quercus.

Photo 1. Paxillus involutus fruiting as a saprotrophic from the heart wood inside an dead branch. Photo 2. Scleroderma citrinum fruiting as a saprotrophic from a dead stump of an oak. Photo 3. Thelephora terrestris fruiting as a saprotrophic on a dead stump. ---

= Polyporus varius ?

Paxillus involutus fruiting as a saprotrophic from the inside heart wood of a dead branch. ---

Another example of extreme buckling of the trunk base of a Quercus rubra infected by Laetiporus sulphureus. ---

This afternoon I monitored a very wet birch wood, where half of the trees is dying or dead and the standing or lying trunks are covered with Piptoporus betulinus, Fomes fomentarius and some Daedaleopsis confragosa. There were just a few tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi found such as Russula claroflava and R. betularum. In mossy patches on the forest floor lots of FB's of Hypholoma elongatum were present and I found a thick birch branch with Lenzites betulinus. Apart from some living birches with black bleeds (see photo), there were no other signs of a parasitic Armillaria species being active. ---

For the complete tree, see Veteran beech.

A Dutch veteran beech with three major and three minor trunks held together and connected by several branch bridges. ---

Not a face, but a complete devil with eyes, nose, mouth, horns, legs and a thin arm stretching backwards in this beech with several branch bridges. ---

Today, in the Dutch city of Zutphen, I found two Horse chestnuts with the beginning symptoms of Aesculus Bleeding Canker. ---

Rob, What tree species ? Aesculus ? If yes, Horse chestnut bleeding canker ? And the fungi are a Coprinus species, which likes tree basis where dogs have urinated on.

Tony, I can support your claim with about 50 photo's of Quercus robur not being resilient to Armillaria and reaction formation of smooth bark (callus) to (in vain) overgrow the damaged cambium.

Not that strange, considering a beech will do anything to keep its crown and trunk (bark) from sun scald after sudden overexposure.

Tony, By "intact", I mean spontaneous or planted forests which at least have been "untouched" for one to two hundred years with trees in all phases of their tree species specific life cycles represented.

Tony & Tony, 1. I meant, that after "travelling outside in" on the lower side of major roots, once M. giganteus has reached the base of the trunk (and fruits), it "dives under" and starts decomposing the central wood column at groundlevel and up to 30 centimetres below the forestfloor without producing FB's for up to 10 or 15 years. Superfically rooting trees such as beeches react with the formation of a dense secundary root system surrounding the trunk base, which is colonized by the mycelium of Laccaria amethystina, supporting the regeneration of branches and leaves until a new crown is formed (Tony's case in Whip), which can for some time blossom and produce seeds before the beech finally falls down because of total destruction of the central wood column of its trunk base (tree species specific survival strategy). Also see this case study. 2. You mean this (see photo) phenomenon ? These FB's appeared for four years in a row after an infected beech was felled and the stump was grounded out. The mycelium followed and fruited from two still living major roots and some secundary roots attached to them. Once all the living tissue of the roots was killed, the mycelium died and stopped fruiting from the dead wood. ---

Tony, Remenber this and the following posts ?

A Tilia from the Pfaueninsel in Berlin, with regeneration of a new tree growing from the partially intact roots of the completely hollow old tree within the remaining "shell" of the trunk. ---

G. australe is not entirely biotrophic parasitic, but it leads a very poor life with small and (partially) sterile brackets (see photo) once the tree is dead and differs in that way from G. lipsiense, which still can form "normal" and fertile brackets from dead wood alone. ---

... and hoof treading and/or scraping ?

Milly, White rot if an Armillaria species is present, brown rot when S. crispa or P. schweinitzii are active.

Great follow up . Was the damage done to the upper surface of the major roots caused by a lawn mower or by shoes of fishing men standing on the river bank ?

This afternoon, in my back garden I witnessed the catching and killing of a hovering fly by a wasp. The wasp caught the fly in flight and they both fell on the terrace while making a lot of noise as both were loud buzzing. The wasp stinged the fly and then slowly dissected it into three pieces, the head, the back side and the middle section, bit off the legs and wings and then flew off with just the middle section held with its jaws. ---

Tim, The French authorities have been warned for this massive outbreak of Ceratocystis platani years ago, but didn't bother to monitor and take effective measures to control this nice gift of American GI's then. So now they are confronted with the consequences of planting hundreds of thousands of trees of the same species within short distance of one another (root contact), trees which on top of this have also been maltreated by cutting of their roots and pollarding them over and over again.

Milly, Yes, that's normal. Necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species almost always for the first time start fruiting when the tree is dead. And if it's a parasitic Honey Fungus (or P. schweinitzii or S. crispa), there is no effective treatment so the tree eventually will die.