Stone dead elm

Frax

Frax

Participating member
Location
Expat now in Chapel Hill, NC by way of Calgary, Al
Removed a stone dead and dry as dust medium sized fairly young elm. It died completely in one year and from a distance looked perfectly intact. The tree had no obvious rot or problems other than being dead. No bugs.
It had two co-dominant trunks about 3 feet from the ground. The codom was narrowly crotched but not bad looking and probably would have been cabled and bolted if it was alive.
I did the back one. Had to be climbed and it was really hard to stay gaffed in (I have pole gaffs) because the bark was just coming off in chunks. Pieces very light though. Was able to handle large stems easily which was good because I did not want to climb higher and cut smaller. The feeling of the whole tree kind of creeped me a bit until I got a few branches off.
Anyway below the join on the two main trunks-


2011-05-03 11.15.12 by altacal, on Flickr

This gap continued well below ground. This is ground level.


2011-05-03 11.28.36 by altacal, on Flickr

The inside of the hollow was black and somewhat glossy. It reminded us of soot and actually did smell a bit like scorch.

Anyone know what this might be? Fungal. Something else? Never saw this before and had no clue the tree was hollow down here.

I don't think it had anything to with the tree death but maybe it did. I think the tree died suddenly from the extreme temp changes we had a year and a half ago (near plus 30 to deep freeze over a couple of days). Calgary lost a lot of trees from that event. Mostly ash though - not elm.

All help gratefully received.
 
one stage of hypoxylon is black and glossy. cosmopolitan; almost ubiquitous here. it might have been infected for some time. buttrot is the name of its game; ask Blinky here.

all this speculative of course; pics are always better.
 
Ground zero for a calgary DED infection?

The recent growth rings are large suggesting something acute that killed it rather than a chronic root problem or otherwise.

Send a sample to a lab and cross your fingers.

v
 
I'll post one of the trunk section half when I get home from work. I'm not up on my tree diseases and this is a way to learn.

Pretty sure no DED involved. Phew. I was worried until we climbed it.

No current cultural issues like soil or construction.

I'm sure it was acute stress that killed it. The bark was coming off all over. The cambium was killed all at once IMO. We had a serious weather event a year and a half ago that killed many healthy trees outright. Hot fall weather follwed by sudden deep freeze. Trees did not shed leaves and then were plunged into winter-long conditions of teh other extreme with no chance to prepare. Non-natives are sometimes not adapted for our extremes.

Its an intretsting case. I'm hoping to learn more about the stuff in the cavity. We saved a chunk.
 
Frax, i'd investigate the DED option more.

We had a tree here several years ago that died just as quickly. I was confused as i though DED didn't kill that quickly. I sent to to Sault Ste. Marie and the lab confirmed DED.

I'm familiar with your weather event and from what i hear, ash were mainly affected as you're on the edge of their range. Not the same for elms. Also with that even i would expect some epicormic shoots at the very least.

It's entirely possible to have a single instance of DED. The tree that i referred was the only DED infected tree that i've seen in thunder bay in the past 5 years anyway. Even a neighbouring tree remained unaffected and still satnds today.

v
 
Vince - maybe I'll save a chunk. All the branches are long chipped but the trunk wood is set aside. It can't go in the woodpile anyway. The wood, as was the underside of the bark absolutely pristine. I found no evidence of bugs but certainly could have missed something.
And you are right it was ash mainly that got hit. I have not seen any other fresh kills on elm.

Guy - here is the section through the hollow where the two co-doms were joined. Looks bluish here but when it was freshly exposed it was jet black, Looked like shiny soot. It's greyish now.

We briefly toyed with the idea that the tree was lightning struck and the water in the cambium was boiled but that does not seem likely. No evidence of strike anywhere on the exterior of the tree.



black inside elm by altacal, on Flickr
 
the way the black stuff follows the old callus is curious.

lightning strike down the core not unheard of

use your hand lens to see if there are little holes aka perithecia? in the black parts. does not look much like hypoxylon from here; dunno

Where's Kevin when we need him?
 
I've been distracted for a few days, but am glad to come upon the codom elm from Frax.
Several things are happening here. I don't know the cause of death, may well have been precipitous and acute with the wide growth rings as noted by nuthin' special up to the LYOG ("last year of growth" in dendrochronology lingo, especially when you don't know what the calendar year was for the LYOG).
*But* the void in the lower stem was not due to decay or sudden decline but due to repeated, unsuccessful attempts of closure following repeated cambial injury about 15 years (white arrows) before LYOG and again about 6 years (black arrows) before LYOG. The wounding events were well before the codom stems were in close apposition.

The ground-line section is just too hard for me to see. If you find yourself trying to document features in chainsawn wood, keep a little whisk broom in your vest pocket to clear away the sawdust. The side of a glove just doesn't make it.

So what might be causing that repeated injury? Some canker fungi (like the target canker fungus) repeatedly kills back the vascular cambium, but this doesn't look like that to me, perhaps because of the coincident timing of the injuries on the two stems. Any chance of metal in the wood? That black to blueblack stain drying to grey looks like iron tannate stain to me, the result of the phenols in the wood interacting abiotically with iron. A rip along the stem axis would tell a lot...be careful in case there is some metal in there!

Not likely to have anything to do with DED...unless someone was installing iron drainage pipes for the wetwood! Not likely, I know.

Anyone going to the western chapter ISA meeting next week in San Diego? If so, I'll see you there!
 

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Thanks Kevin

As usual, learning lots from your detailed and valuable insights.
We were concerned about metal because we thought it may have been bolted but we did not find any.
We actually did rip the lower trunk sections. My work mate wanted slabs for a project. What should we look for? I bet we still have ripped sections in the pile we set aside.
Maybe before the damaged codoms joined someone had done something between the stems. I'm going to look at it more cloesly as per Guys instructions as well.
 
That was what I was thinking, although I don't see clear sign of bolts in the cross-section, that some metal was in there. What to look for? Maybe a column of the black to blueblack to grey stain parallel to the stem(s) axis? Woundwood closing over something? Sometimes the shift in alignment of the wood tissue can show something being covered over or "eaten" even if the object itself is off of the plane of view and not visible.
Lots to learn for all of us!
 
I'm probably not the best person to ask for hand lens recommendations. I tend to lose them! I have a couple that I'm using now, one with a fixed set of lenses and one with several lenses on a hinge that allows them to be used individually or in series.
Pretty much essential for field ID of many plants and fungi, but don't get too hung up on magnification. 20x is plenty. 10x can be enough. As with microscopes and telescopes, optical resolution (the ability to distinguish two separate things as separate)is often more important than magnification. Working distance (the distance from the object to the lens when in focus) can also be important. A broad field-of-view is nice (found with large-diameter lenses)but can compromise resolution.
Like I say, I value them but probably can't be trusted with a high-end one.
With Frax's story above and anything to do with tree ring observations, making a good surface for viewing is critical, whether it's with a whisk broom, razor blade, sand paper!
 
Re: Stone dead elm (Before Stump Grind)

Ground that stump today. Hope some of these images can help shed some more light on what is going on. We re-cut the stump right down to the base of the trunk flare as cleanly as possible. I also stopped to take images during the grind, but I'm not sure if that helps since the cut is not smooth. Since the stump was on a slope the grind is across the stump instead of straight down into it. Hopefully that helps.

Stump at trunk flare

2011-05-13_12.17.30 by altacal, on Flickr

Close-up

2011-05-13_12.17.13 by altacal, on Flickr

detail

2011-05-13_12.17.42 by altacal, on Flickr

Side view exposed thru grind

2011-05-13_12.37.13 by altacal, on Flickr

Closer to hollow part

2011-05-13_12.42.10 by altacal, on Flickr

And closer again
 
Re: Stone dead elm (Before Stump Grind)

Between the time we cut the tree and I re-photographed the base we had rain and the split was full of water. It may have had water in there from before too for all I know.
I'm pretty good with my tree bugs and abiotic disorders for our region but I am really inept with fungal issues and diseases.
What suggests wetwood here? Its a true question. I'm really not up on these things. I should spend some time with my copy of Sinclair and Lyon. Every part of the tree right to the base was solid, but dead. No mushy wood at all even in the gap. Need to find some time...
 
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