A bimble around Wittersham, meeting Chris as the neophyte Tree Warden for the Parish. We had a look at some street trees, the Village Green and Comb Wood. Comb Wood was very muddy and a friendly dog-walker was saying that the trees are very subject to windblow because the soil is clay on the Isle of Oxney and the roots find it difficult to penetrate deeply into the regolith, so forming a shallow rootplate. There were certainly quite a lot of leaning trees!
We saw possible
Schizopora paradoxa, rather broken down, demonstrating the range of colours from cream to ochre. We also came across some Witches/Warlock's Butter,
Exidia, possibly Warlock's Butter,
Exidia nigricans ( = plana). We should have had a closer look at that, to see the surface details.
We came across some brackets on a very rotting log that I thought were
Ganoderma australe/adspersum. The top surface was very solid and tough. I counted about 1-3 pores per mm. There is some conflicting evidence about this, suggesting much smaller, more closely packed pores, maybe 5-6 pores per mm for both species.
Chris sent in a photo of another rotting log with a possible
Stereum subtomentosum, and what was likely to be the asexual (anamorphic?) stage of
Kretzschmaria deusta. Fantastic!
The fungus list for Comb Wood stands at:
Schizopora paradoxa, Split Porecrust
Exidia glandulosa, Witches' Butter
Ganoderma australe, Southern Bracket
Daedaleopsis confragosa, Blushing Bracket
Stereum subtomentosum, Yellowing Curtain Crust
Kretzschmaria deusta, Brittle Cinder Fungus
Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, Ash Dieback