<<To avoid misunderstanding because of my way of expressing myself in the
English language, of which I'm not a native speaker>>
Hi Gerrit
Your English is impressive. The only Dutch I ever learned was "Spreekt u
Engels?" when I went over to present a paper at a conference in Maastricht
years ago. The reply I got from the every Dutch person whenever I asked this
was "Of course I do", accompanied with a slightly puzzled look. Eventually,
I gave up my three words of Dutch and rather than assume everyone spoke
English I would still politely ask whether they did but in English. That was
until I was catching the train back to Amsterdam when I asked a harried
station attendant about platform changes because a train had broken down, and
opened with whether he spoke English. He curtly replied in English "Do you
speak Dutch?" To which I was able to reply "Spreekt u Engels?" Anyhow,
rambling lost in translation tales aside, I am mindful there is a possibility
of some misunderstanding when talking at about technical subjects where
definitions are important and will bear it in mind.
<<Although there is quite a difference in your definition of biotrophic and
necrotrophic parasites and the definition of both terms on the continent, as
is included in all Dutch, German and Scandinavian literature I refer to, I
consider your definition to be the more precise.>>
Thanks for the clarification you to David Lonsdale about the different
definitions on continental Europe. So, in the English speaking world you're
not claiming G. adspersum/australe is a biotrophic parasite with pathology
definitions as we understand them. Can you please let us know what the
continental definition of a biotrophic parasite is?
<<Not on the internet and not in English, only in private communications
among colleagues, as my research is still in progress and probably will be
published next year. And no, this far all research on G. australe was done in
vitro (Schwartze), i.e. not in situ and not on living trees.>>
Please let us know when you publish in English. I'm familiar with Francis
Schwarze's research into G. adspersum/australe and raised the in vitro 'v' in
vivo limitations of it with Tony when he first appeared on here speaking in
tongues and prophetically warning us we could all end up in court if we
didn't believe him and act on what 'a beast G. australe' was. Given the
stringent in vitro conditions that Francis used - sterilised 1cm blocks of
wood sealed in paraffin and incubated with fungus and no competition - though
interesting, I saw nothing from the research, or in the field, that would
lead me to believe G. adspersum/australe was a biotrophic parasite.
When I was looking Ganodermas back in the mid 1990s it was using mycelium to
identify them in the laboratory. I appreciate distinguishing between G.
adspersum/australe and G. applanatum/lipsiense is fraught with difficulty in
the field with macroscopic features. IIRC one of the macroscopic features
that might help distinguish between them was that G. adspersum/australe
tended to have much thicker flesh to pore ratios and the flesh was often a
darker chocolate brown, but this would be caveated and may have been down to
the locality of Durham, where I was looking at this. I don't know whether
it's the same in your patch, or whether other UKTCers have any observations
about this feature.
I've not been overly concerned about distinguishing between the
identification of the two Ganodermas because I've not seen anything
published, or in the field, that has persuaded me that there's a significant
difference between how they affect the stability of a tree. So I look
forward to seeing your research being published. Apart from the Ganodermas,
this is the bit (below) that particularly interests me because it's contrary
to my present understanding about the substantial constraints that functional
living xylem has on colonisation by such decay fungi.
<<3) Has your research established that G. adspersum/australe invades and
colonises functional living xylem?
3) Yes, just as all in situ research on living trees shows that all
Ganoderma's and all other necrotrophic and biotrophic parasites do.>>
I'll start another thread after Christmas on this, but are you also the
source of 'panic fruiting' that Tony also brought to the UKTC?
Cheers
Acer ventura
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