Fungus

1. See the last paragraph of my post under : kretzch. 2. Forgive me for saying, but to me this is an example of looking at a tree from your wallet first .

Paul, Thanks for adding information on the bacterial or micro-organism based Acute Oak Decline, I forgot to mention , because we don't have any or much (?) experience with sudden oak death in The Netherlands (yet). It can hardly be a coincidence, that today a press release warning for AOD to be expected or already present in The Netherlands, came out on the internet. ---

Rob, On the long run it certainly will. As can been seen in the first photo, the crust of Ustulina has not yet stopped producing new whitish grey anamorph reproductive layers, so the mycelium probably has not reached its final stage of destruction of the wood and from the photo of the foliage of the beech can be concluded, that the mycelium also has not yet extensively invaded the cambium. So close monitor and inspect the tree and if not certain of its stability, fell it.

It looks like dried out and oxydized (acid) cambium leakage caused by rhizomorphs of a parasitic Honey Fungus (Armillaria spp.) locally blocking the transport of water and nutrients, but it could also arise from a Phytophthora infection. Were there any flies, wasps or butterflies licking from it (see photo) ? ---

... which - of course- does not mean, that you could not be the first one documenting I. dryadeus fruiting at great hight .

Tony, 1. Your monitoring and evaluating the effects of I. dryadeus on oaks in forests, woodlands and parks, but as Mattheck once told me, in Germany the problem of decay and windthrow by I. dryadeus, which is always fruiting at the base and butts of Q. robur, even with relatively young trees mainly arises with affected "free standing" trees alongside roads and streets or lanes in cities. 2. Well spoken , a rule of "law" for everyone to learn by heart, as you can conclude from my remarks on your first statement . ---

David, Looking at the photo and the size of the bracket and its presence at this hight makes me wonder, whether you have considered this to be (the first U.K. finding ? of) Inonotus dryophilus, a species of which is documented, that it never fruits at the trunk base, but always at greater hight on Quercus robur or Q. petrea. As to the preferred fruiting spots and attacking zones of different Inonotus species, see my post on : Preferences of Inonotus species, to which I can add, that I. dryadeus, just as Fistulina hepatica, probably likes the "assimilation factory" at the base of the trunk best, because of its richness of locally produced (vinegar) acids, as both species also fruit on Castanea sativa and never on Q. rubra. Besides, not just Mattheck, but both Breitenbach & Kränzlin and Ryvarden & Gilbertson state, that : "Basidiocarps typically develop at the ground line at the base of infected trees or from roots at some distance from the base." (R & G, European Polypores, part I, page 321). ---

Yes, especially the Ganoderma species with perrenial brackets will. Most Ganoderma species are necrotrophic parasitic fungi, which means, that they live on as saprotrophics once the tree is dead.

David, This kind of pale brown colouring white rot and "left overs" of melanine plaques with barkthrow as a result, is typical of necrotrophic parasitic Armillaria species, which only (panic) fruit after the tree is cut or dead. ---

Would you believe me, if I said I've counted them myself ? Source : Hermann Jahn (1990). Pilze, die an Holz wachsen. Patzer Verlag, Berlin, page 18, citing research by Parmasto (1978).

As for spores of macrofungi dispersed by wind, an ecological "law" holds, which states, that everything (spores) is always present everywhere, the substrate and the abiotic and/or biotic and climatological conditions "select", the moving of the "Gano-trunk" close to some mature trees will not contribute much if at all to the possible infection of other trees, as long as those trees are not damaged/wounded and in good condition. To give an example : one annual bracket of Polyporus squamosus of about 30 centimetres in diameter, in about a week produces 500.000.000.000 spores of 12 µm each, with which, if one would place them all in a row, one can travel almost 6.000 kilometres. So if we (would) have a "wooden head", we are highly at risk of saprotrophic macrofungi growing and fruiting on/of it .

Matt, As I don't have much experience myself with I. dryadeus (I find myself lucky every time I see one ), because in The Netherlands it is a very rare species, fruiting on very old Q. robur, which are mainly in rural estates not or only partially open to the public, so the trees and the fungus are "protected" and treated as monuments, I'll translate what Mattheck has to say based on his experience with I. dryadeus on road side trees. Type of rot : white rot (and soft rot, according to other sources). Mostly the undersides of the roots or the rootplate, the buttresses and/or the sub-ground level of the base of the trunk are affected. The heart wood becomes soft and the tree vulnerable of windthrow because of the roots and/or buttresses easily breaking off. Maybe Tony and/or David can add some information from their own experience to it. ---

Rob, Yes, I've seen some cases, a few times with beech and once with an Acer, of a girdling root, as a result of strangulating, "shutting off" the water and nutrient supply of another root while crossing it. ---

In The Netherlands, on Red Oak both Laetiporus sulphureus and Daedalea quercina always fruit high up the trunk or close to the lower branches of the crown from old (pruining) wounds and are responsible for many Q. rubra having to be felled at the age of about 60 years, because the brown rot of the central wood develops at a speed ten to twenty times faster then mycelia of both bracket fungi are capable of, when decomposing the heart wood of Q. robur.

Matt, As Tony says, high time to fell, because Ustulina fruiting on the outside is an indication for the mycelium having done is destructive work inside, starting in the middle and working his way through to the outside by soft rotting all the wood it encounters on his "journey", with the tufty top as a consequence of the cambium being invaded by the mycelium secreting toxics. Besides, beeches can not be heavely reduced without killing the major roots corresponding to the major branches too, because the tree species is compartmentalised and on top of that, reduction would also activate the mycelium to intensive the rot before the tree dies and it has to live on as a saprotrophic on a diminishing and rather poor remaining substrate.

Also see my : Fungus album : Phaeolus schweinitzii + Sparassis crispa for more photo's. ---

I have watched them doing this a few times and also often witnessed them taking an "acid" bath in an ant's heap to get rid of bugs, and meanwhile having their portion of ants as a side dish, of which you later can find excrements rich of chitine looking a bit like slowly burned up cigarettes.

Although rather atypical, it could, provided the spores are white.

Gentlemen, gentlemen , I can wait and until then I have plenty of space to talk, so keep out of each others hair and continue the good work, which needs to be done to "enlighten" the arb world with a mycological and ecological systemic and contextual approach to the species specific ecosystems of our much valued trees and their partners . ---

There is a long list to be made of macrofungi as bio-indicators of : - acidity : f.i. pH lower then 4 : disappearance of Cantharellus cibarius, shift in occurance of more acid-tolerant and disappearance of most of the acid-intolerant species and possible "explosions" of (by melanine against acids protected rhizomorphs of) parasitic Armillaria species, - NOx and NOy disposition : tree species specific ectomycorrhizal symbionts disappear, most of the saprotrophic litter and leaf or needle recyclers disappear with a thickening layer of coarse litter as a result, only poorly decomposed by species such as Lepista nebularis, Macrolepiota rachodes, Lepista inversa and/or Collybia maculata and the unbalancend dominance of brown rotters over white rotters of coniferous trees, especially when white rotters should be there in the optimum phase of coniferous forests, - air pollution in general : appearance of Hypocreopsis lichenoides as a parasite of Hymenochaete tabacina, and - drought or flooding tolerant opposite to intolerant species, etc. ---

Because Alnus, which can, depending on the habitat, have a life cycle up to twice or three times as long as Betula, has different needs as far as nitrogen from the soil is concerned, as it with the help of bacteria produces its own, and Alnus has tree species specific ectomycorrhizal symbionts of the Genus Alnicola (= Naucoria), which mycelia can survive in anaerobic environments, i.e. under water, because they get their oxygen supply directly from the roots they have colonized with their ectomycorrhizae. So only middle aged and older alders need a few tree species specific ectomycorrhizal macrofungi, such as Gyrodon lividus and some Russula and Lactarius species, to supply the tree and its ecosystem with nutrients, where Betula, especially on poor soils, has/needs to have many more at its disposal from "adolescense" to old age, which by the way in Sweden can be well over a hundred years.

Tony (& David), I can neither do this on my own, so I will need close cooperation with and support from David (and you ?), the last especially when programming aspects arise, because I still have not entered the digital era completely . Together with David's (and yours ?), my investment would aim at building the best documented website on our shared interests in English.

For a mycological and ecological systemic and contextual approach to endo- and ectomycorrhizal symbionts and the role they play in the dynamics of species specific ecosystems of trees, see : Mycorrhizae. ---

For a mycological and ecological systemic and contextual approach to endo- and ectomycorrhizal symbionts and the role they play in the dynamics of species specific ecosystems of trees, see : Mycorrhizae. ---

The reason for that being, that Betula species have a (very) short life cycle compared to number one and two on the list.