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A wood-decay or xylophagous fungus is any species of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some species of wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such as Armillaria (honey fungus), are parasitic and colonize living trees.
This saprotrophic small gill fungus grows prolifically in large clumps on stumps, dead roots or rotting trunks of broadleaved trees. The "sulphur tuft" is bitter and poisonous; consuming it can cause vomiting, diarrhea and convulsions. The toxins are steroids known as fasciculols and have been shown to be calmodulin inhibitors. [1] [2]
Cerioporus squamosus synonym Polyporus squamosus is a basidiomycete bracket fungus, with common names including dryad's saddle and pheasant's back mushroom. [2] It has a widespread distribution, being found in North America, Australia, and Eurasia, where it causes a white rot in the heartwood of living and dead hardwood trees.
Heart rot fungi, including P. pini, enter trees as mycelium or basidiospores through branch stubs, tree stumps, damaged roots, dead branches, and wounds in general and go on to infect the heartwood of the tree. Fire and cutting operations cause the most common points of entry for the fungus. Moist environments also facilitate fungal growth. [10]
Diagram of white root rot disease cycle Black root-like rhizomorphs on an unidentified European Armillaria species. For the most part, this fungus exhibits a life cycle characteristic of basidiomycetes. It reproduces sexually with the mating of hyphae and produces a basidiocarp at the base of the infected host. This basidiocarp produces ...
The trees die from failure to take up water and nutrients because the main roots are decayed. The death is also accelerated by wind that throws the trees down. It is estimated that Laminated root rot reduces timber production by about 4.4 million cubic meters annually. [4] Wood losses in British Columbia are estimated to be 1.4 million cubic ...
The order is cosmopolitan and contains around 1800 species of fungi worldwide—about 1.5% of all known fungus species. [10] All species in the Polyporales are saprotrophs, most of them wood-rotters. Their fruit bodies are therefore typically found on living or moribund trees or on dead attached or fallen wood.
The fungus forms perennial fruiting bodies that rise as woody-hard, hoof or disc-shaped brackets from the bark of the infested living tree or dead log. The tree species is often willow but it may be commonly found on birch and alder and other broad leafed trees. The top is covered with a dark, often cracked crust, a stem is present only in its ...