How are you folks with fungi id? I've got a bigleaf maple I take care of with evidence of fruiting bodies. On the same site, albeit several hundred metres away is a lombardy poplar in severe decline with what appears to be the same species of fungi fruiting near the base. Again, poor quality pics. First pic is the lombardy with the fruiting bodies...second pic is the bigleaf. Didn't have my tape on me so I used a wanna waffle card for scale. Ha! Thanks!
The first photo looks like one of the inky caps, probably what used to be called Coprinus atramentarius, now Coprinopsis atramentaria. I can't make out what's in the last 2 photos; need a close-up. However, the mushrooms by the maple don't seem to be clustered and are probably different from the first ones.
Good...thanks. They are pretty far apart, so the likelihood of them being the same species may be low. I would like to know what specifically is affecting the lombardy, as the crown dieback in the tree has been quite rapid. I pruned out a great deal of dead from that tree and left what I thought would leaf out. What I thought would leaf out didn't and the tree is 2/3rds dead now. I removed its neighbour in the spring. Initially I thought I could prune the dead and retain the tree, but when I was working aloft I found the wood to be quite discoloured and dry, and the buds seemed a sickly brown-green. The resort manager agreed with my recommendation for removal and it was so. While I suspect that this will be the case for this lombardy, I would like to know what specific pathogen (or as is generally the case; group of pathogens) is affecting the lombardy poplar so. As you might discern from the photos, the fungi is one of many potential stressors to the tree, but I'm convinced that the shared root system of the lombardies might have exascerbated the mortality spiral. Youse folks are great!
Inky caps are not parasitic and are not harming the trees. Lombardy Poplars are well known to be short-lived trees. They are probably dying of old age. It's time to replace them.
Lombardy poplars can live up to 100 years or more, while these are only 45. I'd call them teenagers. There are many large, healthy specimens of lombardy poplar in the interior that are well over 45 years of age. In the case of the tree pictured there are several stressors present, and while the fungi are not necessarily the primary cause of failure, I would presume that this contributes to the mortality spiral. Simply put, fruiting bodies near tree structures generally indicate decay to some extent. I agree with what you suggest...and in fact this is the course of action that I have recommended to the resort manager. However, I like to learn the why of the decline as well. Especially because there is a healthy lombardy within a distance that it could be reasonably assumed that the healthy trees' roots could have intertwined with the dying trees. If this is the case, and there is an insidious pathogen present, then perhaps identification might lead to a treatment which might forestall the inevitable, or prevent a premature death of a healthy young tree.
