White stuff for ID, please!

[solus]

Right - first off, I don't even know if this is classed as a fungi so there's a great start!

Himself kicked at a cut-down ivy trunk the other day - trunk is the only word for it as it was very substantial - and it fell apart to reveal all this white rot stuff.

My question is:
1) Is it a fungus and
2) if it is, then can anyone please suggest a name for it?

Ta muchly.

[diggleken]

Hi Solus,
this looks very similar to a thread I did a couple of months ago:-
rotten log fungus id
That might help, though I didnt get a 100% ID.
Cheers
Ken

[KeenTeen17]

I think it could be either Schizopora paradoxa at a young stage or elder whitewash which occurs on different hosts to elder as well I think.

[solus]

Thanks for the link Ken! I knew I'd seen something similar recently but I couldn't find the thread. That's why I wasn't sure if mine even was a fungus. Whereas yours seemed to have pores, mine's got sort of little bumps... There wasn't anything to see until the thing fell apart. (Himself's version of pick-up-sticks is kicking them over!)

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

a similar looking fungus is Sistotremma brinkmannii which is found on dead wood and plant debris (?)

Neil

[mollisia]

Originally Posted by wildlifesnapper

Hi

a similar looking fungus is Sistotremma brinkmannii which is found on dead wood and plant debris (?)

Neil

Hallo,

pure guessing without microscopical details, but from the macroscopical appearance this should be a Hyphodontia/Grandinia or something like that, because the surface is uneven-warty and not cop-like (athelioid) as in Sistotrema brinkmannii.

I would not be astonished if it turns out to be Hyphodontia sambuci, as already KT suggested.

best regards,
Andreas

[solus]

Thanks all. So it is a fungus at least?

I have read that Hyphodontia sambuci grows "On living or dead wood and bark, often at the bases of living trunks of Sambucus nigra but known on a wide range of other deciduous hosts. Rarely on coniferous wood or brash." (Bsaidiochecklist) So where does that leave Hedera?? Inside the cut-down stem at that?

Sometimes I wish I didn't want to know what these fungi-things are - it's taken me the best part of all day to post a few pictures, (indirectly) upset another WAB member and still not learn what my photos are of! Time I took myself off to bed and gave this up as a bad job for tonight, methinks!

[mollisia]

Hi solus,

I can understand your frustration to a certain degree, but on the other hand the group of fungi you posted here - the Corticiaceae or "crusts" - are always a guarantee for frustration, because you nearly never can tell the species with certainty macroscopically. In a few cases one can give a probable name, but in most cases, especially with the white, ochraceous, grey and blueish-violaceous ones, there is no way to tell a species name. Not even when they grow on ivy, because only few of them are host specific.
And even with the aid of micorscope it is often not possible to give a name bacause the specimen is either not ripe, or overmature, or from a group were not yet a useable monographic treatement is published (Athelia i.g. ....) and so on.

best regards,
Andreas

[solus]

Thanks Andreas.

To be honest I didn't hold out a lot of hope for this particular one so to discover it is a fungus at all is pretty good going!

I was actually more frustrated over my other post, asking for confirmation of my tentative IDs, where I seem to have inadvertently ended up upsetting both Jennyb and Chris Y.... I'd hate for my simple request for the right identification for my fungi finds to result in people leaving and getting angry with each other.

Anyway, today is another day and I think the plan is to go out for a walk in the woods later and er... look for some fungi....! Actually, I want to have a look at how some emerging Spring Hazelcup [Encoelia furfuracea] from last week is coming along - always supposing we can find the tree again.