Surrey Homes | SH61 | November 2019 | Gift supplement inside

Garden
We’ve got a fast growing and rather beautiful quaking
aspen behind the pond; its nooks and crannies
providing a nesting site year after year to a pair
of starlings. Unfortunately, the crows got wind of this some
years ago and now, if you ever see us waving our arms and
shouting ineffectually in the garden, you’ll know why. The
crows always win but the starlings don’t give up. They’ll return
next year to start all over again. This tree has now become
two ‘grown up’ trees with its offspring in an adjoining field
seemingly catching up with its parent. And each year we have
umpteen offshoots popping up where they are not wanted,
which are obviously growing up from their parent’s root stock.
However, this is nothing compared to one of the two
biggest phenomena to be found in the world. The first
is Panda (meaning ‘I spread’), which is to be found
at Fish Lake, Utah, where 47,000 aspens are attached
to one single root system. How extraordinary.
But the other even more mind blowing natural organism
is called the Humongous Fungi. It lives underground in the
Malheur National Forest in Oregon and covers
nearly four square miles. And the only sign of
it is acre upon acre of dead and dying trees in
the area. This is Armillaria ostoyae, a form of
honey fungus; parasitic, it sucks the nutrients
from its prey so that it becomes impossible for
the tree to access water. However, there’s a lot of
useful research going into fungi biology using
material from this site in the labs of the National
History Museum of Utah and which has already
led to the discovery of ‘originally unknown
medical compounds and the development of
ideas for mitigating pathogens in food crops’.
Finding honey fungus in your own garden
“Pesticides are
toxic to beneficial
fungi in the soil
and upset the
balance of soil.
Once a plant has
the honey fungus
really not a lot
can be done”
need not be the disaster you first think it might be as there
are six species of which only two will damage living plants.
You’ll recognise it by the fungal mycelium,
which comes up at the base of trees and
smells strongly of mushrooms. You may see
thin strands that look a bit like bootlaces
but are the fungus rhizomorphs. But, just to
confuse things, the least harmful armillarias
produce the most rhizomorphs so it may be
quite difficult to identify the fungi at first.
Don’t worry, the tree or plant will let you
know in advance whether it has been attacked
because its last flowering or fruiting season
will be either particularly floriferous or have
an unusually heavy crop. One last attempt
to reproduce before its untimely death. So
a seemingly healthy plant which has these symptoms is
most likely to have fallen victim to this particular fungus.
However, the armillaria has its good points as it recycles
nutrients in dead wood making it easier for insects to return
them to the soil. So as the nutrients are returned to the soil,
new seedlings can take advantage of improved conditions.
It used to be that copious amounts of a product called
Armillatox was used as a drench to stop honey fungus in
its tracks but it was banned in the early 2000s. The
Main image: Honey fungus Below: Amanita muscaria
Above: Fungi in the garden at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s
summer residence Left: Fungi on oak
135 surrey-homes.co.uk