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Piptoporus & Fomes on birch - distribution

Subject: Piptoporus & Fomes on birch - distribution
From: Pete Hughes
Date: Dec 28 2006 19:29:12 
Hello all,
/
/As an escape from Christmas, I took the dogs for a walk on Boxing Day
to Holme Fen, a National Nature Reserve just south of Peterborough. The
vegetation here is in the early stages of ecological succession (having
been drained in the 1800s) with the majority of the trees being Birch,
slowly being succeeded by Oak. The soil is very peaty and subsequently
there is a lot of wind throw - the root plates of thrown trees are very
shallow (often no more than 20-30cm), most likely to be as a result of
the high water-table and the impervious blue clay not far below the
surface. What I find most interesting is that there are also substantial
numbers of brackets of Piptoporus betulinus and Fomes fometarius to be
found on standing and fallen birch trees in various states of decay. I
would guess that there are roughly equal numbers of brackets of both
species, which got me thinking about the distribution of the 2 species
in the UK - the literature generally agrees that Fomes is more common in
the north, while Piptoporus predominates in the south.
I'm curious to know your experiences of these species. Does one or other
specie appear exclusively in the north/south, or do both occur but in
varying proportions? What would be the reason - does one occupy an
ecological niche over the other that results in it's predominance? I
also wonder why both appear in equal numbers at Holme Fen - perhaps it's
due to the 'cornucopia' of a suitable food source (i.e., thousands of
Betula).
If you're ever in the area, I'd recommend a visit to Holme Fen. Two
points of interest are that (1) it is the lowest place in Britain, being
2m below sea level, and (2) the Holme Fen Posts, 2 cast iron posts which
were both sunk vertically into the peat in the 1800s, so the tops were
flush with adjacent ground. One of them (buried in 1852) is reputed to
have come from Crystal Palace. As a result of the drainage of the Fens,
the peat has decomposed aerobically and the ground level has dropped
such that the tops of both posts are now about 4m above ground level -
hence the reason why the underlying clay is now nearer to the surface. 

Be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

Pete




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