Mushrooms taste great on
a nice steak. However, when you find them growing around
the trees in the landscape, it could mean problems.
Serious problems!
Like all living
organisms, the fungi that form mushrooms or a conk need
to eat. When you find mushrooms growing on a tree or in
its root zone, it usually means that the fungus is
eating (i.e. rotting) plant tissue.
Perhaps the most serious
mushroom to find is the ones that form at the base of
the tree near the soil line. These are usually the
fruiting bodies (mushrooms) of
root rot
fungi. This means that the organisms are consuming
the roots and this can make the tree less stable. It
could be more likely to fall over in a storm so care
should be taken to remove these trees if they threaten
houses, driveways or the kid's playset.
Once you start seeing
mushrooms coming through the bark of the tree, it is too
late to do anything about it. Sometimes this occurs as
part of the inevitable decline of an old tree. Such
trees need to be evaluated by a registered arborist who
is trained in evaluation of tree stability.
About the only thing you
can do is try to keep the tree healthy by watering
during droughts, fertilizing occasionally and pruning
properly.
