The mystery tree on June 3…
Oh dear, I knew this story would end in tears… You will recall the “winter tree” I featured in my last blog post? The one that had no leaves in early May when all around was green? Well I went back this week, a month later, in the hope its leaves would now give me an identification.
As I got nearer my heart sank. It was still resolutely leafless.
Bare from every angle…
No change to those scrunched, perished brown leaves…
It got worse. I think I gasped as I approached, to see there were fungi growing in profusion at the base. A gasp of appreciation because I love fungi? Or perhaps because I knew such fungi are associated with dead wood?
Fungi beneath the mystery tree…
At least I think I have been able to identify the fungi – Coprinellus micaceus – commonly known as mica cap, shiny cap, and glistening inky cap. Apparently the young fungi are edible but unless you cook them quickly an enzyme causes them soon to autodigest or deliquesce (always a favourite word of mine) and turn dark and inky.
Young Coprinellus micaceus at one end of the group of fungi under the tree…
Autodigesting Coprinellus micaceus at the other end…
The complete range…
The tree, I noticed, had a little metal plaque saying 0024. which suggested there must be a list somewhere that would identify it.
Come in number 24, your time is up?
So I called the council parks department and spoke to a very helpful tree inspector called Liz Phillips. She did not have a list with the number 0024 on, but kindly went out of her way to visit the tree in person and next day she emailed me her findings.
Overnight I was a little sleepless, thinking I should have kept my mouth shut, as I was probably signing the tree’s death warrant. But surely it was already dead? I was no longer looking for an obscure species identification, as I had been when I was expecting it to come into leaf late. It now could be absolutely anything. One dead tree looks much like another?
One dead tree…
Anyway, Liz (may I call you Liz?) identified the tree as a rather dead horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastaneum) and could even shed some light on what MAY have caused its demise – possibly a bleeding canker. I think she means one specific to chestnuts, caused by a bacterial pathogen called Pseudomonas syringae pathovar aesculi. There is more information about it on Wikipedia and on the RHS site. Occasionally chestnut cankers are caused by a fungal Phytophthora pathogen, but this is more common in the USA than in the UK.
With hindsight I should have seen the signs earlier…
Lovely lichen but damaged bark…
VERY damaged bark!
So the tree will be removed (and hopefully another similar one nearby). I reassure myself that if it is destroyed it may save infection of all the other chestnuts in the park – and there are SO many. With sudden oak death, ash dieback disease and this, it seems every tree has its own specific nemesis.
And another positive to come out of this is that the friendly tree inspector has seen my blog and offered to help me with identification in future! Thank you so much!
Say hello and wave goodbye…
I think I am “over it” now and will watch out, on my monthly visits to the fields, to see when the tree has been felled.
For some reason, since writing that last picture caption, I can’t get the words “Say hello, wave goodbye” out of my head, so found the 1981 Soft Cell song on YouTube and had a good singalong for a while. If you know the song, why don’t you try it yourself? Here it is… Very therapeutic!
The Squirrelbasket 
I had another look after reading your reply last night and now wish I had replied again, because Horse Chestnut was my other suggestion 🙂 Don’t know whether you use this website? It’s very useful: http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/tree-identification/horse-chestnut/
Glad to have the mystery solved. Presumably they’re removing it because of the fungus rather than it being dead?
PS- I did giggle about your sing-a-long, it’s exactly the sort of thing I do too 🙂
Well done with hindsight!
I didn’t consider any of the species that were already in leaf, as at first I just thought it must be a species that was late into leaf. Then when I realised it was probably dead I didn’t stop to think that it might be the same as lots of green chestnuts nearby.
As for the fungi, the fungi around the base are harmless – they just happen to like growing on dead wood, so they were a sign rather than a cause of death.
The tree inspector wasn’t certain of the cause of death, but it does look like it was some sort of canker, whether caused by some tiny bacterium or fungus. The tree has to go because the airborne infection might spread to the other trees of the same species, whether the normal white-flowering horse chestnuts or some red-flowering ones nearby…
All the best
Its never nice when they have to take a tree down, at our park they cut down quite a few Horse Chestnut trees a few years back, but put the trunks of the trees along the coppice wood edge. They might be dead but now they are so full of life and benefit all the wildlife at the park.
Amanda x
It’s great when that can happen. I find dead wood and stumps full of fungus and insects fascinating – but I fear in this case they may even have to dig out the stump, because of the infection 😦
All the best…
Sad post. Interesting pictures. Useful ending!
Yes 😦 Thank you 🙂 La La La…
This is probably going into Horse Chestnut diseases at a greater depth than you might want – but have come across this
http://fera.co.uk/search.cfm?q=horse+chestnut
Thanks for that – you can’t have too much information.
I think the latest article does suggest the current epidemic is caused by the pathogens I named (from Wikipedia).
Interesting they suggest not to “chip” the diseased wood as this can cause the disease to spread.
Thanks again…
An interesting ‘journey’ Pat. Positively, you’ve made a great connection there with Liz. It’s great to hear how others will go out of their way!
Yes indeed.
It’s good to go that extra mile (which is literally the distance from the parks office to the chestnut tree, more or less…)
All the best 🙂
This is so sad. I really sympathize, the tree looked like it needed some TLC. Such a shame!
Sadly too late for the TLC…
I see you are following a lime tree. Your street in the Netherlands looks very much like our streets in suburban Cardiff – and we have LOTS of limes.
I am now following your blog.
All the best 🙂
Thanks for the follow. I’d still like to hear about what happens to this tree. I guess in a way it’s part of the following process that there will be trees that die.
What a sad ending to your unidentified tree, but hopefully you have helped saved the llves of the surrounding trees. I enjoyed listening to the tune very appropriate! Sarah x
And I still can’t get that song out of my head…
Thanks for your kind words.
All the best 🙂
I’m really worried about horse chestnut trees, they’re so beautiful and great for bees. It’s tragic they’re being attacked by these diseases.
Yes, terrible. They have so many flowers, I bet the bees DO love them!
All the best 🙂
How sad. I am wondering why no-one else seemed to have noticed its demise though. Good job you’re paying attention.
I’ll be going back soon for the monthly tree following visit. It will be interesting to see if the council has done anything yet. I somehow doubt it, but we’ll see…
All the best 🙂