Sorry the pictures aren't the best, due to where it is it's hard to get a photo of the full tree. This tree has been bare of bark just around the trunk for as long as I can remember but I just noticed these mushrooms at the base of the tree today and am wondering if its a sign that the tree may need to come down. There are similar mushrooms scattered throughout my yard as well but nowhere else are they this clustered together. The weird thing is that the trunk looks bad but the branches are full of leaves. Any help would be much appreciated!
by BuffaloHanson
10 Comments
Trunk looks half fine.
The bare wood is, well, bare wood. No living cells involved. That’s about as scary, though, as noting that your fingernails aren’t made of living cells– i.e. it’s not scary in itself; it’s just how trees are.
The living bark around the tree has formed a line of callus tissue that is working to grow over the wounded area.
You have some dead bark still hanging onto the tree above the bare wood.
The mushrooms are feeding off dead wood (or at least I think that’s a reasonable simplification of a reasonable assumption).
The tree might be buried too deep? I don’t see a root flare, and I so compulsively go scratching around at tree bases– because all-too-often it yields useful information– that I really want to try pulling back that soil around the tree and see what kind of funky dysfunction is happening.
Yes, the canopy is green because the intact part of the trunk and root system is currently up to the task of supplying the canopy with enough resources. Think logistically. If the roots and/or trunk are running at only 60% capacity in their job of providing water to the canopy, that’s okay if there’s plenty of water in the soil. It’s when water starts getting scarce that, oh no, you’re pushing the limits of your water-gathering and water-transport. THAT is when partial damage to the vascular system will show as the canopy doesn’t get adequately supplied.
To your question of whether the tree needs to come down, meh. Is there a target of any importance that might be damaged by the tree falling? And how eager would you be to spend money to try to improve the tree’s health?
What type of tree is it. Green ash?
Mushroom only grow where decay is present.
Mushrooms at the base usually mean decay in the trunk or roots, even if the top looks healthy. With the bark gone and clusters like that, the tree’s likely compromised and could be unsafe. Best move: have an arborist check it, odds are it needs to come down if it’s near anything you care about
If that tree is right behind your house, you should have it removed, period.
The first think you need to evaluate is if the tree falls, can it actually hit anything? If the answer is no, then it’s ultimately up to your discretion whether or not to remove it. If the answer is yes, then you need to look at the consequences of the tree falling on the target. The mushrooms are a bad sign, and given That information I would say this tree has a probable likelihood of failure, meaning it could fall under normal weather conditions. If it can hit something, you should probably get it taken down in my opinion.
Those mushrooms are fruiting bodies of a fungus that’s already been digesting the wood inside your tree for years, and combined with that bark loss, it’s a major red flag that the structural integrity is severly compromised even if the canopy looks healthy.
You are making an ash of yourself.
These mushrooms are decomposers. You can see them up the trunk too, smaller colonies. They are actively breaking down the wood and eventually returning it to the soil, even though the tree is still alive.
The tree may still be alive, but the mushrooms are forever part of it and will continue breaking it down unless you inject fungicide, and that’s only temporary.
Reddit arborist be like “mushrooms are a sign of decay” while looking at a picture with viable decay