Essex Field Club on Facebook

Visit Our Centre

EFC Centre at Wat Tyler Country ParkOur centre is available for visits on a pre-booked basis on Wednesdays between 10am - 4pm. The Club’s activities and displays are also usually open to the public on the first Saturday of the month 11am - 4pm.

About us


Video about the Club Essex Field Club video

registered charity
no 1113963
HLF Logo A-Z Page Index

Your Forum

This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at
Essex Field Club on Facebook




The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more


Wed 26th September 2012 11:32 by Mary Smith
Shaggy Bracket
There has been a serious shortage of fungi for the last 6 weeks, but the recent rain should mean lots to find in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, I looked up into our old Bramley tree in our garden this morning and saw a bracket fungus, fairly high up. I used a garden rake, attached to another long pole, to bring it down.  It was Inonotus hispidus or Shaggy Bracket.  I have mostly seen it on Ash or, rather, on the ground below an Ash, and the only one I can remember seeing alive on a tree was years ago in Epping Forest, where it was at head height on Sorbus torminalis, Wild Service-tree. The books tell me it often grows on garden apple trees too, but I don't often get an opportunity to have a fungus foray in anyone's garden except mine.

But this one is significant on this tree. I don't know for certain when it was planted, but I guess it was around 1932 when the house was built and the garden new. Over the years our tree has provided variable loads of apples and has been host to a wide variety of tiny insects and other invertebrates, nearly all malign. So much so that now, according to my old gardening book, it has nearly all the plagues known to apple trees. A few years ago it was host to a large crop of Armillarea mellea,Honey Fungus, which sprouted next to it, and is a well-known destroyer of trees of many kinds. Now it has Shaggy Bracket as well. It also has very few apples, but nearly all have fallen to the ground due to strong winds recently, even though not yet ripe. I consider this to be its final nail in its coffin. But we won't cut it down yet, as it may host more interesting things before its final demise, and, indeed, after it. It would be nice to have Stag Beetles in my garden, for example, and other fungi.  Who knows!

link
 

Archives:

May 2020
Aug 2019
Jan 2019
Sep 2018
Jul 2016
Oct 2015
Jul 2015
May 2015
Apr 2015
Mar 2015
Feb 2015
Jan 2015
Dec 2014
Oct 2014
Sep 2014
Aug 2014
Jul 2014
May 2014
Apr 2014
Mar 2014
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
Sep 2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Jun 2013
May 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
Dec 2010
Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Jun 2009
May 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Jan 2009
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Sep 2008
Aug 2008
Jul 2008
Jun 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008
Jan 2008
Dec 2007
Nov 2007

current posts