r/australianplants • u/Lukazoiid • 16d ago

Please help me identify this thing.

My Grandmother sent me this asking what it was and I have no idea. Hoping one of you has some insight. Growing on her gumtrees.

14 Upvotes

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u/not_ElonMusk1 16d ago

It looks like Laetiporus portentosus also known as "white punk" fungi to me

https://naturemapr.org/species/7206

When dried out they can make awesome tinder because the tissue holds a spark for hours. They usually grow on eucalyptus as well which is a match for your tree in the pic.

Edit:

http://australianfungi.blogspot.com/2007/09/26-laetiporus-portentosus.html

Some more pics to compare with. Just note that if it's your tree or near your property, this is a sign of decay in the tree and the tree itself is dying

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u/triemdedwiat 15d ago

Nope, Australian trees often pipe and a skin injury can allow fungi, etc to access the dead core wood and live of it.

Your last sentence is the BS spruked by tree loppers.

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u/not_ElonMusk1 15d ago edited 15d ago

I have both aboriculture and mycological experience.

You are correct about the fact that the spores enter through wounds, but all Laetiporus species indicate that there is a health issue for the tree.

This goes for chicken of the woods as well. It's an indicator of (usually) white heart rot, or some form of rot in the tree itself.

I can assure you most arborists actually don't want to lop trees, we are trained to rejuvenate them wherever possible.

Edit: wanna add that once you start getting heart-wood rot your tree is already gone.

Edit 2.0: thanks for the downvote mate. Even if you disagree on my last point it's still the most accurate answer here.

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u/triemdedwiat 15d ago

Um, Australia and you can look up piping and what it means; aka no heart wood.

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u/not_ElonMusk1 15d ago

I'm literally typing to you from Sydney and where do you think I got my aboriculture experience?

On ya mate.

I still got the ID of the fungus right, so even if you disagree on a well documented point you shouldn't be downvoting a correct ID when none of the other comments were even close to right.

You do you though.

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u/not_ElonMusk1 15d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/marijuanaenthusiasts/comments/tdnlyn/old_sweet_gum_tree_had_to_go_most_of_the_tree_was/

Tell me again that gumtrees don't have heartwood.

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u/triemdedwiat 15d ago

LOL. read the comments. It was starting to pipe. Fungi missing.

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u/not_ElonMusk1 15d ago

Ya fooken what mate? I am laughing at you so hard as is my housemate with 30+ years qualified arborist work under his belt.

You said gums don't have heartwood - that's downright wrong clown.

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u/triemdedwiat 15d ago

How the fsck do you thin it grew in the first place sucker.

Hey wait, at first you claimed to be to be one educated and now it is your tree lopper mate. Is he to one who stars on all those "Oh fuck" tree lopping videos on ewetube?

Are you even as old as that tree in the link you posted before?

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u/not_ElonMusk1 15d ago

Lmao you spelled it as fsck so I I can tell already you're a nerd and most likely a troll. grep this

I have arborist qualifications and so does my mate. Is it hard to imagine people become mates with people they work with?! You'd probably have an answer if you had mates.

grep -oP this:

‘xf0x9fx96x95’ | xxd -r -p