Sundry sucker sprouts from roots

[colb]

Hi folks, I've got a live oak in a natural area that was probably impacted by construction about 10 years ago. It resides atop a 6 ft high cone of 20 feet diameter with its structural roots and trunk flare showing in many places. The tree leans towards a house and would hit it with the upper 4/5ths of the canopy if it fell, plus it would knock out a proper above-ground pool. On the tension root side of the trunk is a mass of small roots and suckers that grow upwards against the trunk for about 1.5-2 feet. I excavated the side of it with a chainsaw and airspade, working into 1" diameter root material that I could not associate with the main trunk. On the cone as a whole there is an increased frequency of oak sprouts compared to the frequency in the adjacent natural area. Four large fungal conchs and many puffball were growing 1-3 feet from the trunk. I'm writing a level two basic assessment.

Below are pictures. Kindly let me know if sucker sprouting from roots indicates something in particular, identify the fungi, or just have a good laugh at my expense...

Fungus #1 (at very bottom of distant view 8n 4th picture):



Puffball:


Fungus #3:

 

[colb]

Here is the excavation. Each picture is a blow up of the previous picture.

 

[JD3000]

Am I seeing red sapwood on that butress root? Is that color normal for live oak? If not, phtophthoras can cause that coloration. Any oozing?

Lots of suckers coming off roots I generally attribute to shallow roots recently becoming exposed to sun and the elements though I see crabs and pears seemingly doing it just cuz they feel like it. Is this area exposed to washing out that would remove soil and expose roots? I know very little of live oak but stress induced water shoots on trunks and bramches are more common than root suckering in my area save very almost dead trees.

The white fruiting body looks a bit like weeping polypore, Inonotus dryadeous. The darker one, not so sure about.
I believe the puffballs are just saprophytes of fallen duff.

 

[colb]

Am I seeing red sapwood on that butress root? Is that color normal for live oak? If not, phtophthoras can cause that coloration. Any oozing?

Lots of suckers coming off roots I generally attribute to shallow roots recently becoming exposed to sun and the elements though I see crabs and pears seemingly doing it just cuz they feel like it. Is this area exposed to washing out that would remove soil and expose roots? I know very little of live oak but stress induced water shoots on trunks and bramches are more common than root suckering in my area save very almost dead trees.

The white fruiting body looks a bit like weeping polypore, Inonotus dryadeous. The darker one, not so sure about.
I believe the puffballs are just saprophytes of fallen duff.

No red sapwood on the buttress root - I did not saw into it. That's bark that used to have that mat of suckers on it. There is no oozing anything. Thanks for the SOD lead. I looked into it a tad and will some more.

Not much sun - it's in a shady natural area with lots of same-cohort 1-4" diameter, 15' ft. high sapling regrowth in the understory.

The area may experience washout. I will consider that. The duff looks undisturbed, but natural areas in Florida are often local depressions that can be associated with storm runoff. This area is a 75' wide, irregular corridor.

Do you see very almost dead trees suckering a lot at the roots? That is my intuition here, but I can't afford to intuit this one. My other hypothesis was that the broad side of the leaning trunk was bouncing acorns there, like a backboard. But that doesn't explain the rest of the suckers and the fine root mat that is *everywhere* on the grade of the cone - even right up to the trunk on the other three sides. I airspaded around next to the trunk.

I looked at Inonotus dryadeous. I don't know fungi very well. Might take them in to a Uni lab tomorrow...

 

[JD3000]

No I mean damn near dead, like an EAB ash. If your canopy in decent shape?

Did you excavate under or near any fruiting bodies to examine roots?

 

[colb]

The leaf flush is great.

I excavated below the conch stems and puffballs. One of four conchs was growing immediately adjacent or on a major root. The root did not seem to be decayed. The rest of the conchs were just in the fine root mass and associated duff.

I keep getting hits for websites on live oaks that sucker from the roots. Apparently it's a thing, and I can think of a few now that I'm aware of it. I cannot find anything scholarly yet... If I clear this thing and it falls I'll be pissed AF.