Fungus identification

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by fairplay

[b]
If it kills other trees or shrubs in your garden over the next couple of years or more, do keep us informed as more peoples experiences are needed on this still little understood problem.

Neil.

hence my comment above . . . Armillaria mellea in the broad sense covers a number of species and possibly different strains within species; as I understand it not all these are serious pathogens - but you don't want to take risks - there are websites which talk you through its removal (though I don't know how many of these are trying to sell you something: RHS advice is probably pretty neutral)

Chris

[SheffieldLass]

Yesterday there were masses of what appeared to be Armillaria mellea coming up in Sheffield Botanical Gardens, in a quite a lot of the shrub beds. Not where you want to find it ....

Melanie

[fairplay]

That's interesting, it will be worth you keeping an eye on how the experts deal with this.

Neil.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by fairplay

That's interesting, it will be worth you keeping an eye on how the experts deal with this.

Neil.

ah but Melanie is moving on . . . to one of the best mycological areas in Northern Europe

Chris

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

ah but Melanie is moving on . . . to one of the best mycological areas in Northern Europe

Chris

Only if the dithering buyers of my house actually go through with it. Their bluff has been called. I'm now waiting to see how they jump. I could be in Sheffield for a while longer

But yes, it would be interesting to see how they do deal with it. I wasn't sure what it was associated with, (though Yucca was nearby in a quite a few cases), whether the trees had been removed but the roots not fully removed, or whether the shrubs were being parasitised. In fact checking the RHS list Yucca is fairly resistant, so maybe I should look at the plants there, see whether they have deliberately planted resistant shrubs around those areas to let it gradually die out. Some of the borders looked fairly newly planted, well, just a few years old rather than very mature. There were some tree stumps in the ground, hadn't been removed, with some clusters on.

This gives a guide to the susceptibility of certain plants. http://www.judithglover.com/RHS_HoneyFungus.pdf

Melanie

[karnak]

Many thanks to all contibutors to my original question, some very intersting replies.
I was particularly interested in Neil's comments, about it spreading and the possibility of it affecting other trees and shrubs.

The dead Alder tree which is currently infested, died about 2 years ago and I had it reduced in height and branches lopped rather than having it cut down as I wanted to use it as a post for an outside light. This tree had a neighbouring tree, some 2 feet away - a beech tree, which also died about 6 years ago and I had it cut down to a stump, leaving 6 inches above ground. I have noticed that over the last few years there has been various fungi growth from time to time around this stump, so it may be that the Honey Fungus had infested the Beech Tree and killed that and then eventually, did the same to the Alder Tree. Incidentally both trees were quite mature trees, they were quite mature when we moved into the house some 38 years ago!

I did try the URL mentioned by Melanie but it was not recognised.

Another question, should I physically remove the fungus from around the tree, or would I be wasting my time?

I hope my comments are of interest.

[SheffieldLass]

for that link, this is the quick view ....

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That seems to work.

[karnak]

Thank you once again, the link does work and I read the information with interest, it was certainly very detailed and informative.
Ideally I would like to remove the remains of both the Alder and Beech trees, but unfortunately that is not realistically possible. I will however monitor developments and the probable spread of the fungus over time in this particularl area of my garden.