One day driving to the supermarket I noticed that there was a magnicent Hoof Fungus Fomes fomentarius (Fr. Amadouvier) growing on one of the poplar trees (Populus plantation hybrid) lining the road to the hamlet of Humeau. The next day I made sure our walk passed the spot so I could photograph it. And as a result I realised that the tree was being attacked by at least two species of fungi, and it, and a companion across the road were in fact dead. These poplars have numerous parasitic mistletoe balls attached to them as well as the fungi. On these two trees the mistletoe was clearly dead, making it evident that the trees themselves were dead and the supply of nutrients to the mistletoe had ceased. Other nearby poplars had green thriving balls of mistletoe.
Dead Mistletoe on dead Poplar.
It is unlikely that any of these fungi, or the mistletoe, killed these trees on their own, but they would have contributed to the death, and taken advantage of weakened trees that were suffering some other stress. My guess is the stress was weather related, particularly several long dry spells in the past few years. The fungi will now process the wood in the tree, decomposing the lignin and the cellulose and recycling it back into the soil.
Unidentified fungus on dead Poplar.
1 comment:
We see a lot of trees that are completely smothered in mistletoe and I often wonder how they survive with such a demand on them for nutrients.
Post a Comment