Honey Fungus

[Herewardw]

I found a stump with some potential honey fungus on it today.

Do I need to do anything about it? Or is just endemic to woodland and will find its own balance?

Thanks

[Compo]

Just the one? People will wring their hands and suggest total removal and soil sterilisation, the end is nigh. Honey fungus is everywhere and if it was as lethal as some might suggest there wouldn't be a tree left standing anywhere. Truth is that healthy, well grown trees seem well able to resist it (with the possible exception of Willows!). Either way I wouldn't worry about it as there's not much you can sensibly do anyway. And the fruiting bodies are supposed to be edible (although I wouldn't risk it personally).

[Treeation]

Agree with compo. Healthy trees have resistance to honey fungus. When trees becomed stressed this opens up the doors for secondary pathogen and fungal attacks. Stressors include drought, soil compaction, overshading etc. You may lose the odd weakened tree in your woods but I personally would not be worried. Maintaing a healthy proportin of deadwood in your woods will also help increase useful fungal activity that can protect trees from harmful fungal invasion.
Patrick
www.treeation.co.uk

[Stephen1]

A wood without honey fungus would be an unhealthy wood. Most of the mis-information about this group of fungi comes from books looking at the gardening situation. All trees have fungi associated with their roots - these benefit the trees by having a huge surface area and absorbing moisture and minerals which are passed to the tree - in return the fungi get sugar the trees make in their leaves. Trees have no immune system and the second benefit the trees get from the fungi are that they produce chemicals that fight 'bad' pathogenic fungi and bacteria, and prevent them from infecting the tree. When trees are weakened in some way i.e. aerial disease or just being over shaded by neighbouring trees - they can't produce as much sugar and so the 'good' fungi their roots are associated with also weaken, allowing the roots to be invaded by oother different fungi. In a woodland situation there are lots of good, bad and many neutral fungi around all having their own little chemical battles in the soil - in a garden however the situation is very different with far fewer fungi about. Trees often don't associate with the 'best' fungi for themselves just because there are fewer around - this often makes them much more susceptible to pathogenic fungi like honey fungus (because the 'good' fungi their roots have had to associate with aren't the best for protecting them) and certainly if it does attack they go downhill much quicker.

Out of interest if you have seen the honey fungus fruiting bodies - go back at night pull away some of the loose bark- most armillaria species glow in the dark - not the fruiting bodies but the mycelia ( the white stuff not the 'bootlaces').

[oldclaypaws]

Stephen- I'm genuinely impressed by your general knowledge of woodland ecology, you have a lot of insight into the more subtle workings of a wood.

Can I ask if this has been gradually accrued, have you digested numerous books (if so, which do you recommend), or have you undergone a formal ecology degree or similar?

Would appreciate some pointers towards this grail of advanced woody understanding. If its not second hand learning, perhaps you should start to put pen to paper and share some of these gems with we lesser mortals?

[Compo]

The truth is that climax woodland is an extremely complex ecosystem where the living relationships (prey/predator. symbiotic, parasitic, saprophytic and more besides) are far beyond our understanding. With time, evolution moves towards ever more complexity and specialism. At the same time the system becomes more susceptible to damage and interference. While few would disagree that the Amazon rainforest should be saved we are unfortunately much more cavalier with the future of our own woodland. Mature woodland is close to irreplaceable. What does it take to replace a 500 year old Oak? An acorn and 500 years. We should remember that we are dealing with a living thing not just a collection of individual trees. Precious isn't a big enough word.

[Terry]

Good post by Stephen1 on the OP's question & Compo's 'bigger picture' post

Back to Paws' request for recommended reading please

[Dexter's Shed]

In our camping area, we have quite a few rotted oak stumps, and lots of this, is this honey fungus???

[Herewardw]

Thanks for the comments, it makes sense. If honey fungus was that bad, we would have no woodland.
I think the photos could be sulphur tufts, but not sure. Could be honey fungus.

Will try to get back at night to see if it glows!