Maitake rot in red oak

Serf Life

Serf Life

Been here much more than a while
Location
Maine Island
We took down a red oak today that had fruiting maitake, Grifola frondosa, around the base pushing through grass. There were no fruiting bodies on the trunk, no cavities, and still a fair amount of foliage. Always neat/informative to guess what the inside looks like while quoting then get to see it. The stump is brushed off but looks like it’s covered in sawdust with the brown rot.E3438770-A16C-4A3B-81F9-834CFFD146CB.png9E81A5FE-ECCE-4AF9-8EE2-6E780DC7B15D.png
 
That is a lot of brown rot! Panic fruiting is a topic I wish were discussed more often. As always there are two different ways of looking at things. In this case one is that it’s not often when you can predict volume of decay by the number, size or presents of a fruiting body. This may be true, but there is certain validity to “ daum, this thing might be punky look at the size(or number) of these fruiting bodies!”
Looks like a great take, with a decent meal!
 
evo said:
That is a lot of brown rot! Panic fruiting is a topic I wish were discussed more often. As always there are two different ways of looking at things. In this case one is that it’s not often when you can predict volume of decay by the number, size or presents of a fruiting body. This may be true, but there is certain validity to “ daum, this thing might be punky look at the size(or number) of these fruiting bodies!”
Looks like a great take, with a decent meal!
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A friend makes mushroom jerky with maitake. Typically when it's up there's so much of it. More than you can eat and keep fresh. It's good eating either way.
-AJ
 
Typically I’m seeing maitake on black oaks and less often red oaks along customer driveways where the trees are stressed, nearly half of the root zone is under asphalt. And they’re usually dinged up from winter plowing. Black oak rarely looks great in eastern Massachusetts, I’ve seen some beauties here and there but mostly they have scraggily looking crowns at best. So a crappy looking crown doesn’t tell me much, except, yeah another struggling black oak. Since I see maitake at the base of their trunks year-in-year-out I’ve accepted it as status quo. After seeing Serf Life’s photos need to think on this more. Thank you.
-AJ
 
I’m generally with you AJ with spotty fruiting around oaks and decline as ours have been getting hammered by winter moth and browntail moth so most are looking poorly. This specific one was fruiting on multiple sides so guessed that the roots were getting toasted and bit of lean towards house. A neighbor had a full crown beauty of an oak shear off at the ground on a calm day a few yrs back and had been fruiting (don’t know what) around it for years he said. Been more wary since then as they aren’t hollow and don’t sound super off with a mallet.
 
Serf Life said:
I’m generally with you AJ with spotty fruiting around oaks and decline as ours have been getting hammered by winter moth and browntail moth so most are looking poorly. This specific one was fruiting on multiple sides so guessed that the roots were getting toasted and bit of lean towards house. A neighbor had a full crown beauty of an oak shear off at the ground on a calm day a few yrs back and had been fruiting (don’t know what) around it for years he said. Been more wary since then as they aren’t hollow and don’t sound super off with a mallet.
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Yeah yeah, great info, thx!
 
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