Is this sulphur tuft or honey?

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by RobSutton

That's interesting - there must be quite a lot of geographical variation in it's host. Up here it's almost exclusively on Ash, and I've always thought of it as being an Ash specialist and very rarely find it on anything else - but then again we don't get much Elm. Are Ash and Elm closely related?

I'm not sure how close Ash is to Elm, but in Suffolk and in my opinion, Gorse is favoured next to dead Elm as a host to Velvet Shank.
It would be interesting to know how it fares over the rest of Britain (preferred host wise)

Neil.

[Ditiola]

There is a huge variation in form in F. velutipes, Here are three of my photos, but unfortunately I did not record the type of wood they were on:

Peter

[RobSutton]

I've done a quick sort of the FRDB to host for Velvet Shank and found:

Elm 202 records
Birch 58
Oak 52
Beech 51
Ash 35
Gorse 31
Lime 11
Hawthorn 11
Sycamore (Acer in general) 8

Obviously my perception of Velvet Shank as an Ash specialist is tainted by living and having lived in northern/limestone areas of the country where Ash is perhaps the commonest tree species.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by RobSutton

. . . . Are Ash and Elm closely related?

I don't know, Rob . . . . no, they're not - they're not even in the same order:

• the ash is actually in the olive family (and therefore extremely isolated as a native British tree) and in the order Lamiales
• the elms are in the order Rosales

it's hard to get ones head around the fact that ash is more closely related to mint, and elms more closely related to strawberries and nettles, than they are to one another

unless Flammulina turns out to be a species-complex of more host-related taxa I don't think host has much to do with it - perhaps it was more a case of DED creating large numbers of suitable dead trees

cheers

Chris

[fairplay]

And my perception of Gorse being 2nd most favoured in Suffolk is due to my living on (former) heathland.

Neil.

[flaxton]

Just to add my two penneth
This group on an old carved stump


fooled me for a while but this one had the more characteristic stipe

The "big" problem was that the largest fully mature cap was less 1cm across I eventually found that there was a L velutipes forma pigmaea of this size that used to be recognized.

Mal

[hamadryad]

Originally Posted by RobSutton

I've done a quick sort of the FRDB to host for Velvet Shank and found:

Elm 202 records
Birch 58
Oak 52
Beech 51
Ash 35
Gorse 31
Lime 11
Hawthorn 11
Sycamore (Acer in general) 8

Obviously my perception of Velvet Shank as an Ash specialist is tainted by living and having lived in northern/limestone areas of the country where Ash is perhaps the commonest tree species.

the irony of that statement is that it is incredibly common on horse chestnut, on which it is one of the most common saprobics, elm is also a favourite.

tony, a tree surgeon!

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by hamadryad

the irony of that statement is that it is incredibly common on horse chestnut, on which it is one of the most common saprobics, elm is also a favourite.

tony, a tree surgeon!

So why doesn't Aesculus hippocastanum come high on the FRDBI list then Tony ? Naughty boy, you haven't been sending your records in.

(Mind, nor have I, but I will, I will !)

Neil.

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by hamadryad

the irony of that statement is that it is incredibly common on horse chestnut, on which it is one of the most common saprobics, elm is also a favourite.

tony, a tree surgeon!

Not quite sure why it was ironic but never mind. Using the FRDBI Associated Organism search facility gave just 14 records for Horse Chestnut - it wasn't in my original list as I hadn't bothered checking for it. I've put the link in above if you want to have a look at any other species of tree.

As Neil implies any data base is only as good as the records submitted so this is obviously not the complete picture.

[hamadryad]

Originally Posted by RobSutton

Not quite sure why it was ironic but never mind. Using the FRDBI Associated Organism search facility gave just 14 records for Horse Chestnut - it wasn't in my original list as I hadn't bothered checking for it. I've put the link in above if you want to have a look at any other species of tree.

As Neil implies any data base is only as good as the records submitted so this is obviously not the complete picture.

yes irony wrong word.

theres a fistulina record said to be "on leaves" too anyone else found fistulina hepatica on leaves, or in fact any other species than quercus robur/petrea and castanea sativa?