Fungi Friday 🍄

Have you ever seen a fungus fell a tree so cleanly? Not likely, because this was a chainsaw job!

Streatham Common is part of London’s historic Great North Wood, a once extensive landscape of ancient woods and commons. It’s good for fungi and the management is very sensitive, as you can see here.

This is an impressive Ganoderma bracket, almost covering the entire circumference of this felled horse chestnut. I was here for maybe two minutes but I think it’s probably Ganoderma resinaceum.

My guess is that the tree probably succumbed to some other issue, as there are diseases afflicting horse chestnuts in the UK. That said, Ganoderma resinaceum does parasitise aesculus (horse chestnut) trees. Trees in city parks also get damaged where this fungi moved in, often by grounds maintenance staff strimming the grass too close to the tree base. See it all the time!

The trunk has been left for fungi, which is great. There were even the remnants of some oyster mushrooms growing from the trunk.

Thanks for reading.