Kveldssanger

Evening all, Certainly one to buy! Only £15 + P&P from the AA. Duncan Slater's presentations he did for the AA on branch junctions earlier this year now available to all. https://www.trees.org.uk/Book-Shop/Products/Assessment-of-Tree-Forks-Course-Notes

rip oysters!

Shall tell the missus to stay inside. Thanks.

Do you mean ascophores? It's an Ascomycete. Think ascophore is the correct name (or more broadly a sporophore).

Oh yes, the first time I have seen this association. Absolutely delighted, and it was by utter chance - I was spec'ing up some wilows for fungi by a river and there was a line of large elder and hawthorn, and when walking back I caught a small glimpse of a smooth ended object (that didn't look like a stub) on the fence-facing side of the elder. Walked up and saw this beaut'. Was grinning like I'd just won the lottery hah. Certainly, the fact most elders get gutted young and might never achieve sizeable stature will limit the ability of fungi other than some small saprotrophs from colonising to any marked degree. A shame - there are a few wonderful ones in Wickford, and this is a larger one (though not the largest!). The largest probably warrants a TPO! Hoping it does become more common. It might make people pay attention to the elder, beyond its reclamation of disturbed land ability. Also clocked some Xanthoporia radiata (Inonotus radiatus) three times on alders (two still fresh - got samples to keep!) by a woodland stream and an Inonotus sp. (or whatever its new genus may be, once we get a species ident') on birch, so had a corker of a day!

Yesssssssss. Rigidoporus ulmarius on elder (Sambucus nigra).

Good thread! That echoes was Ted was telling me last weekend, and name-dropped Tony saying he helped put the idea 'out there'. I am a little annoyed I didn't take a photo, but what got us on to the topic was a beefsteak enamating from a burr that was very pronounced, and the tiniest of tiny heartwood area exposed allowed a beefsteak to push through and fruit (on that false stem I mentioned above). Do you know if Tony continued his research on beefsteak and breaking out of the heartwood to cause burring? I don't use facebook or anything so wouldn't know, sadly! Perhaps I should join to frequent such discussions... The dual decay of laeti and beefsteak is another curious point, and when throwing Gymnopus fusipes into the mix it gets even more cool. Then lob in P. draydeus, Grifola, the Ganodermas (resi and australe and also lucidum maybe) and we get a real mix of stuff that can break down the heartwood of oak - albeit with white rots in there, too (and some facultative soft rots). It's a frighteningly awesome matrix of mycelial action and separating where one reign ends and another begins is very difficult, when we also take into account genetic variation / hybridisation of oaks and the sexual reproduction of basidiomycetes. As usual this is probably a rambling mess but fungi just make my head spin...

In which case you may very well have a point. That jogs my memory - I was told last weekend that Fistulina can cause basal burring on oak. In that sense, activation of epicormic buds at the base of the host oak could perhaps occur.

For a heart rot such as Fistulina, the vascular efficacy of the oak shouldn't be compromised and thus this observation about epicormics might not apply. The rot (if you can even call it that for long periods of time, as the mycelium gets its carbon fron the tannins) is restricted to the heartwood, which is - in the conductivity sense - almost useless.

Referring to Fungal Decomposition of Wood (page 337-8), the decay of this fungus is very slow to progress in the heartwood of oak, to the degree that discolouration / staining preceeds wood degradation by potentially a long time. Anecdotally, it's one oft seen on areas of oak where heartwood is exposed (even if only a tiny fragment is exposed and allows for the creation of a fruiting body atop a sort of false stem), and one rarely associated with failure (though of course it can - eventually). If the oak is not particularly old, then it may simply be a case of an extra five years being no extra 'issue' and the wood won't have begun to deteriorate through brown and soft rot of Fistulina. As for staining, unless you track with radial cores there is little hope of discerning, and radial cores would discolour / damage the wood undesirably.

26/11/16. #212. Jainism, a religion from the Indian region, is also worthy of note within this series, despite being one of the smaller major world religions. Its origins are debated, as to whether the ancient Vedic religion pre-dated it or not (Shah, 1998), though such origins are clearly beyond the scope of this post. Therefore, with specific focus on the stance Jainism takes on the natural world, and specifically trees, one can observe that the stance adopted is one of marked non-violence (ahimsa) – greater than that of both Buddhism and Hinduism, in fact (Altman, 2000; Hall, 2011). The rationale behind this assessment – provided originally by Mahavira (the eminent ‘teacher’ of Jainism) – of plant life is that, because plants are able to respire, metabolise, reproduce, and die, they are living. In turn, plants are considered to possess independent life souls, which are encased within their physical structure (Arumugam, 2014; Tobias, 1991). Trees may even have multiple souls (Fynes, 1996). Such souls can be reborn into the body of an animal, and even a human – the reincarnation process is not limited to humans and animals (Hall, 2011). However, a soul can only be liberated following an existence in the human form. Jain literature does however indicate that plants are not necessarily intelligent (though they can feel karmic emotions, such as anger, passion, and pride), and thus the acquisition of resources for life processes is perhaps only a survival instinct (Hall, 2011). Regardless, because the religion adopts the outlook of not harming living beings, plants (including trees) are not to be unjustly harmed. Fruits and other materials can, of course, be harvested from trees (Jainas are vegetarians), though the trees themselves cannot be uprooted, as this kills them (Altman, 2000; Sims, 2016). Unlike both Buddhism and Hinduism, Jainism also has no God – worship is considered something that interferes, and runs counter to, nature. Instead, as Tobias (1993) and Long (2009) write, Jainas revere. Trees are not excluded, in this regard. Mahavira speaks of trees as having inherent beauty, and instead of seeing them as suitable for their timber that can be used to construct buildings and other objects, they should be seen as “noble, high, round, with many branches, beautiful and magnificent” (Chapple, 2001). Within the Jain religion, the following trees are considered to be of great importance: the acacia (Vachellia nilotica), bel (Aegle marmelos), bodhi tree or pipal (Ficus religiosa) and other figs (Ficus spp.), kadam (Neolamarckia cadamba), mango (Mangifera indica), tamarind (Tamarindus indica), and teak (Tectona grandis), amongst others (Begum & Barua, 2012; Chandrakanth & Romm, 1991; Chapple, 2002). With regards to the bel (Aegle marmelos), it it understood that the 23rd Jain teacher (the one before the eminent Mahavira) gained enlightenment under the tree (Ariharan & Nagendra Prasad, 2013). The pipal (Ficus religiosa), another highly-regarded tree, may act as a symbol of the Jain religion (Choudhury, 2012). Such aforementioned tree species, in addition to others not mentioned, may therefore reside within and around Jain temples (Kiernan, 2015; Lal et al., 2014). The Ranakpur Jain Temple, which sits amongst wooded hillside. Source: Pilgrimaide. In some instances, Jainas may also partake in the planting of trees (notably on degraded land), and perhaps most notably of the tree species seen as worthy of particular reverence. However, Jain monks and nuns may refrain from planting trees, as in disturbing the soil to plant a tree they may kill various soil micro-organisms, which goes against the non-violence aspect of the religion (Altman, 2000; Arumugam, 2014; Kiernan, 2015). On a similar level, monks and nuns will have a very strict vegetarian diet, because their holy scriptures forbid the consumption of raw plants. Of course, this means such individuals cannot even eat fruit, and as this is not wholly practical, there are deviations from the rule (Hall, 2011). Nonetheless, it does demonstrate exactly how highly Jains regard plants. References Altman, N. (2000) Sacred Trees: Spirituality, Wisdom & Well-Being. USA: Sterling Publishing. Ariharan, V. & Nagendra Prasad, P. (2013) Mahavilva-a sacred tree with immense medicinal secrets: a mini review. Rasayan Journal of Chemistry. 6 (4). p342-352. Arumugam, D. (2014) The perspective of environmental protection in Jainism: special reference to the concept of Parasparopagraho Jivanam. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. 3 (1). p25-45. Begum, S. & Barua, I. (2012) Ficus species and its significance. International Journal of Computer Applications in Engineering Sciences. 2 (3). p273-75. Chandrakanth, M. & Romm, J. (1991) Sacred forests, secular forest policies and people’s actions. Natural Resources Journal. 31. p741-756. Chapple, C. (2001) The living cosmos of Jainism: a traditional science grounded in environmental ethics. Daedalus. 130 (4). p207-224. Chapple, C. (2002) Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life. USA: Harvard University Press. Choudhury, J. (2012) Tree worship tradition in India and origin of Jagannath cult. Odisha Review. June 2012. p55-57. Fynes, R. (1996) Plant Souls in Jainism and Manichaeism The Case for Cultural Transmission. East and West. 46 (1-2). p21-44. Hall, M. (2011) Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany. USA: Suny Press. Kiernan, K. (2015) Landforms as sacred places: implications for geodiversity and geoheritage. Geoheritage. 7 (2). p177-193. Lal, H., Singh, S., & Mishra, P. (2014) Trees in Indian Mythology. History. 12 (29). p16-23. Long, J. (2009) The Paradoxes of Radical Asceticism: Jainism as a Therapeutic Paradigm. In Derfer, G., Wang, Z., & Weber, M. (eds.) The Roar of Awakening: A Whiteheadian Dialogue Between Western Psychotherapies and Eastern Worldviews. Germany: Ontos. Shah, N. (1998) Jainism: The World of Conquerors, Volume 1. UK: Sussex Academic Press. Sims, L. (2016) Jainism and Nonviolence: From Mahavira to Modern Times. The Downtown Review. 2 (1). p1-8. Tobias, M. (1991) Life Force: The World of Jainism. USA: Jain Publishing Company. Tobias, M. (1993) Jainism and Ecology. In Tucker, M. & Grimm, J. (eds.) Worldviews and Ecology: Religion, Philosophy and the Environment. USA: Bucknell Press.

Looks like Ramaria stricta or something similar.

Very cool! Grifola has a wider host range than I thought. First cherry now robinia. Next you'll see it on a bleedin' Rhododendron lol. Indeed, that Perenni-Gano beech was really cool. I didn't notice at first - took me a few seconds...!

Yes but the one on the bottom left is a Ganoderma australe (most probably, if going for a species of the Ganodermas). Has snuck in on the Perenniporia party.

Spot the odd one out of this lot! On a beech at Epping.

Indeed, it's a beautiful fungus.

Hericium coralloides today from Epping on a beech stump.

Curious. My experience is the total opposite. As I learn more about the scientific aspect of the world I am drawn consistently closer to the concept of a higher intelligence / order / spiritual notions. Also, why on earth is everyone just disucssing Christianity, as if that is the only religion. Explore ancient religions and the old religion of Europe, for a greater understanding of what religion actually is. The criticisms of Christianity are abound, though there is a total failure of the recognition of other religions, and notably polytheistic ones. Maybe those posting here simply do not align with a monotheistic and modern religion such as Christianity.

Also an addition to my post with the original references, but with regards to Ganoderma resinaceum (which is typically annual). There is one specimen I have seen for three years in a row grow from old senescent fruiting brackets and seemingly not from the host oak tree itself. This begs the question as to whether the fungus is recycling its own senescent sporophores and thus has active mycelium within the senescent fruiting body, or whether the fruiting body is in fact not wholly senescent. For reference, the new growth was not to the bottom like how Ganoderma australe just adds a new hymenium to an ever-growing deck of hymeniums, but sporadically over the old fruiting bodies. Last year (2015) the old fruiting body was eventually entirely enveloped by the new growth. This year, the active growth was quite pathetic in comparison, achieving little more than a splattering of £2 coin-sized growths across the old brackets (notably on the underside).

Totally agree on the very closed system we place fungi into. As I said the other day about something slightly similar (think it was to do with fungi), the species are incredibly fluid (not conforming to specific qualifications we place on them all of the time) and there are so many variables in place that it's almost pointless trying to conclude anything concrete; at least, at this moment in time where knowledge is really still a little sparse in many aspects of mycology. In a way, that's what I enjoy about learning about fungi - there is scope to really imagine, and hopefully one day I have the chance to test some of my ideas in the lab or out in the field (which may well come with experience and time). I am really liking that additional growth on that reishi. It'd be absolutely fascinating to be able to monitor all of the chemical signalling going on inside its mycelial network and relate the signals back to both environmental attributes (humidity, temperature, etc) and also to neighbouring and competing fungi that would be having a direct influence on this reishi. Ascertaining whether genes switch on and off at and during fruiting would also be an enlightening investigation, and would relay back to chemical signalling as well. You may find this talk interesting, which I have just finished watching. It's Lynne Boddy, so of course it's going to be good. [ame] [/ame]

As Gary said, wood-decay fungi are everywhere. Ganoderma spores are everywhere, as they're so very common (specifically Ganoderma australe, which is probably on this cherry). The other cherries are probably already colonised (to many different possible degrees) by this fungus as well if they are semi-mature or mature, though the fungus simply hasn't produced fruiting bodies on the other trees that can be seen. This doesn't imply the other trees aren't 'healthy', though that term is quite non-descript for trees. Is 'healthy' totally void of parasitic fungi, or are we running just by crown symptoms? Grinding down the stump and taking out as much of the material as possible is therefore an exercise in futility. You're also removing a great habitat for many saprotrophic fungi that may make the cherry stump their home.

20/11/16. #211. So this is a very quick one but I wanted to share it as it's actually really cool. As I am reading through Fungal Decomposition of Wood, on page 149 the authors detail that Ganoderma lucidum produces two types of spore from its basidia during its reproductive phase (where a fruiting body is present). Specifically, when the fruit body is young, thin-walled basidia are produced that germinate very readily on any suitable wood substrate that they may land upon (which is a slim chance anyway), though as the fruit body ages the type of spore differs to become much thicker-walled and - if it is to have any decent chance of germinating if it were to land on a suitable substrate - must first pass through the gut of fly larvae. Of course, this differentiation in spore type (by where the former spore type is dubbed a 'proterospore') has implications for effective dispersal. The former thin-walled proterospores are to have a principal means of effective dispersion via air currents, and may indeed be released during the summer months when it is drier and therefore wind dispersal is more effective (assuming we apply a crude phenology to Ganoderma lucidum, and posit that a hymenium is produced and releases spores by summer time - late June through to late August). However, the thicker-walled spores produced in later stages of the fruiting body's life (being an annual bracket, it will senesce come late autumn, generally-speaking) would require either larval tunneling through the mature fruiting body and consuming spores along the way (which they then deposit elsewhere on possibly suitable wood substrates) or by larvae consuming spores where the spores were deposited by the air currents / other means. Larval tunneling could also take place after the bracket's senescence, when some spores will still probably be 'trapped' within the tubes. Three Ganoderma lucidum sporophores growing out from ever-so-slightly buried wood of Carpinus betulus. This old stump supported a good many more sporophores of this species. If we are to accept that mature and active fruiting bodies are more likely to be host to tunneling insects, by virtue of: (1) the fruiting bodies being often sufficiently larger in size to allow for effective tunneling in a sheltered environment not at much risk of suddenly being aborted by the 'parent' mycelium and (2) because they have been in the environment for a longer period of time (thereby overlapping with ovipositioning of more insect species and generations), the second type of spore production actually makes logical sense. Furthermore, climatically-speaking, rain usually becomes ever more frequent as we approach late summer to early-mid autumn (when the Ganodermas are often still very much active, and the annual brackets of Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma resinaceum are certainly fully mature), and therefore wind dispersal perhaps becomes ever more challenging for polypores that depend upon dry conditions in which they can release spores. In fact, and again it's only my hypothesis, but as rain can drive spores onto and into the ground (as they are caught up in rain droplets, etc), the dispersal of these thick-walled spores might also provide them with the chance to be consumed by soil-dwelling insect larvae or ones that forage close to the ground, in place of upon fungal fruiting bodies. When we note that Ganoderma lucidum can also fruit out from underneath the ground, it gives this theory time for a little more consideration. Thus, the potential scope of insect consumers increases quite extensively. The caveat here is, as is most certainly evident, a lot of my own thoughts have expanded upon the initial statement in Fungal Decomposition of Wood. As this book was written almost three decades ago and the research into Ganoderma lucidum spores was first published in 1982 by Nuss, there may have been developments since then that further explain this biological characteristic. At the very least however, this demonstrates that a spore is not just a spore, and that the mycological world is admirably complex. Another series of Ganoderma lucidum upon the same Carpinus betulus stump, in the UK. This image was taken on 9th September 2016, as was the first image. Sources: Nuss, I. (1982) Die Bedeutung der Proterosporen: Schlußfolgerungen aus Untersuchungen an Ganoderma (Basidiomycetes). Plant Systematics and Evolution. 141 (1). p53-79. Rayner, A. & Boddy, L. (1988) Fungal Decomposition of Wood: It's Ecology and Biology. UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Oh don't get me wrong Gary we all do it, though it's never actually something that constitutes an excuse in such a blase manner as the original poster put it in (that is the way I interpreted it and I am happy to be told otherwise). It's also something that is relative to the issue at hand, in terms of the magnitude of the impacts associated with the act. People at very high points of managerial power aren't always going to be the most technically adept or aware (either because they no longer do what was once more technical, or because they never did it in the first place and always preferred a more generalist approach to management), and therefore trees simply rank below many other factors in their decision-making processes. Culturally-speaking, nature always ranks below economic development. Always has and always will. It's the anthropocentric angle many take to life. We see it with how we farm the land, how we consume products, and how we choose to kill trees to save a pavement from uplifting. Certainly a characteristic of Western culture and it has been for many centuries. I am just as guilty of that as others, so I am not on a high horse. Generalisations abound in this little post, but I trust people understand where I am coming from.

And the protesters have a right to do that. What is going on in Sheffield does not align with fair and democratic processes that this country should pride itself upon. Wanton destruction for whimsical reasons associated with bottom-line savings - and all to suit an elongated contract, where the contractor hasn't a care in the world about trees - is utterly pathetic, and re-planting these trees is not the same as retaining existing ones (by any stretch of the quite nebulous imagination of some). Frankly, you need to plant 100 trees to recoup the value of removing one mature tree, at the very least. And what about aftercare? Oh, that costs money, so I wonder whether they'll actually do that in Sheffield as it should properly be done. I have my doubts. This might be a rather provocative addendum, but "doing your job" isn't an excuse for anything. It's sheer dissonance of an issue, and equates to hamstering away something one has done because it could - if not hamstered away - be met with an adverse mental state by the person(s) who did the action(s).

Good book. Picked it up last week from Summerfield Books. Not read it but just flicked through. A nice read over the course of a day, no doubt.