Fungus

Rob, See : Aesculus bleeding canker.

Janey, ... which is Agaricus bitorquis, in Dutch - for obvious reasons - called the Street champignon. Closed in annually fruiting mushrooms are capable of shifting or lifting lumps of earth, layers of tarmac or pavement tiles and stones, because they - apart from the reproductive organs and spores - develop all cells necessary for development of a fruitbody in a "bud" or primordium (see photo of the primordia or Cosmic Eggs of the Fly Agaric), which does not grow, but stretches by absorbing moisture from the outside and storing it into the cells, triggering unstopable hydraulic powers making this tour de force possible. That's why Phallus impudicus can "grow" up to two to five centimetre an hour once the "egg tooth" (discus) on top of the "head" has cut through the outer layer of the witches' or devil's egg without needing a blue pill to become and stay erect for several hours. And I once even witnessed Meripilus giganteus fruiting with two 40 x 40 centimetres concrete sidewalk tiles on top lifting them up to 40 centimetres above ground level. ---

Matt, Rosei means rose or pinkish coloured, pes or pedes (think of pedestrian) means foot, so where is the pinkish coloured base of the stem then ?

1. Because the "bark" only is the superficial top layer of the callus or wound tissue, which is trying to overgrow and close the wound from the top and/or from aside. 2. Yes, because the mycelium and/or rhizomorphs stay active behind the newly formed callus, which causes the live wound tissue to die (over and over) again, because the contact with the cambium tissue is interrupted, after which the dead "bark" wound tissue falls off leaving an impression of the rhizomorphs in the dead sapwood behind (see : Fungus albums : Rhizomorphs Armillaria ). ---

Yes, but it is expensive and in German : F. Kränzlin (2006). Pilze der Schweiz. Band 6. Russulaceae. Milchlinge (= Lactarius : 82 species) & Täublinge (= Russula : 136 species).

Tony, Smell, taste, colour of spore print, FeSO4, phenol and/or guajac reaction, size and ornamentation of the spores (microscope) ?

Rob, With Quercus robur : yes, with Fraxinus : yes, with Q. rubra : no, with Beech : no (see photo), etc. Tree species with (thin) smooth or "flat" bark develop rough and folded or wrinkled callus and bark. So you have to learn to diagnose the tree species specific bark "body language" as a reaction to an infection with a parasitic Armillaria species. ---

Tony, What's the next step then ? Glue their "feet" with a water dissolvable medium to a substrate to temporarely fixate them like a Dutch "nature" photographer did with lizards ? Honestly, you must be joking .

Again , to be more precise, the effects of the rhizomorphs and/or mycelium of a necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species, which in invading the cambium of the oak's trunk base through the damaged roots have triggered tree species specific callus and "flat" bark formation, as also can be seen in the following photo's. ---

... and to expose the hidden agenda and propaganda and PR-campaign of the producers and resellers of a product, which has no superior qualities over grinded barbecue charcoal.

Phil Beech : Laetiporus ? I agree because of the horizontal cracks in the life belts and bucklings indicating there is a brown rotter "at work" (see photo). ---

Steve, I was mislead by the title, because in my note book this is an Alpine butterfly . ---

, the project in Rotterdam was part of an outdoor exhibition on how nature changes the shape and character of "naked" wood, which has not been protected against the influences of sun and rain.

I'll gladly be available for identifying and documenting your first find ever of Agathomyia wankowiczi on Ganoderma pfeifferi.

David, Did you (also) consider to have artists make wood sculptures out of the trunks of some of the trees ? Some years ago, in three parks in Rotterdam, I've been monitoring the macrofungi on 25 poplars, of which the lower two to three metres of the upright standing trunks without bark were left behind of which local artists made very nice "temporary" sculptures. After 5 years, a total of 46 species of macrofungi was documented from the trees of which some of the sculptures were naturally "modified" by the mycelium of superficial white rotters.

Tony, I don't want to spoil the fun, but was the Ganoderma Andy Overall found microscopically checked and confirmed to be G. australe ? And without microscopical identification, I'm not convinced your Ganoderma is G. pfeifferi, to me it looks like old brackets of G. lipsiense becoming shiny after rainfall had washed off all the spores.

Geoff, The toxins not only do not hurt the caterpillar, it actively stores it in his body to become inedible to poisenous to predating birds.

Of course .

Correct : Ganoderma species are white rotters with selective delignification changing the cellulose/lignin dependend flexibility/stiffness ratio of the heart wood of the tree, which makes the trunk vulnerable for splitting or delamination if it is twisted (torsion forces) "under full sails" (foliage) during a storm.

Matt, A test with KOH (caustic potash), see : Keizer's Fungi Q & A.

Matt & Tony, Because of the whitish pores, I'm 90 % sure it's C. trogii. Did you do the KOH-test ?

... and the cellulose/lignine dependend flexibility/stiffness ratio of the heart wood.

Janey, This type of splitting (shear cracks) of a trunk not only can originate from twisting (torsion forces) of a tree "under full sails" or foliage by (rain and) storm winds alone, but sometimes can be predetermined and caused by the mycelium of Ganoderma australe decomposing the central core of the heart wood of oaks (see photo). ---

The mycelia of biotrophic parasitic or phytopathological fungi invade and deform and/or kill living tissues (mycotoxines : canker, necrosis) on which they partially to completely depend for their primairy "energy" supply. Some of them at the same also decompose dead wood and (partially) convert cellulose into chitine to produce annual or perennial FB's, others mostly only fruit at the end of the trees life cycle or panic fruit once the "job" of killing the tree is almost done. Once they've killed their host, biotrophic parasites stop fruiting, because they are incapable of decomposing dead wood to produce FB's from without contact of the mycelium with living tissues. Most of the mycelia of necrotrophic parasitic or optional saprotrophic fungi are "mildly" parasitic, which means they "slowly" alter or kill live tissues, on which they only temporarely partially depend for their "food supply", because they (almost) always at the same time decompose and convert dead wood to produce annual or perennial FB's from too. Once the tree dies, the mycelia enter a completely saprotrophic phase and continue to decompose the remaining dead wood accompagnied by many others saprotrophic fungi in a partially tree species specific successive order.

No, in a nutshell : - some (almost) always cause deformation of live tissue and bark (canker, necrosis) or bleeding of trunks and/or deformation of live tissue of branches (canker, necrosis, fasciation), such as F. hepatica, some Inonotus species, Auricularia mesenterica (?), Chondrostereum purpureum, Phytophthora species, Nectria species, Pezicula corticula, Massaria, some anamorphs of ascomycetes like Chalara fraxinea and Taphrina betulina, - some sometimes do, like K. deusta, (rhizomorphs of) Armillaria species, Collybia fusipes (?), some necrotrophic parasitic Inonotus species, Phaeolus schweinitzii and Sparassis crispa, - most of the necrotrophic parasites, which all have different strategies of wood decay with species specific effects on the body language of the trees (wrinkles, folds, swellings, bark sinking, lesions, development of callus, etc.), don't, because even though they are "mildly" parasitic, they mainly invest in decomposition of cellulose, which continues once the tree has died, - some annually fruiting biotrophic parasites just "give away" their presence by die back of (foliage of) the crown and/or (panic) fruiting, such as Pholiota squarrosa and Meripilus giganteus, - and some biotrophic parasites, such as most Phellinus species, always show their perennial brackets in combination with species specific body language of the tree.