Fallen Deadwood

Fallen tree on West Wickham common

This is a case of standing deadwood becoming fallen deadwood on West Wickham Common.

It was a tall, long-dead tree, looks like a beech, serving as a home and food for many sorts of fungus and beetle, and as shelter and nesting sites for birds and possibly also bats, for there are several species of bat on the common. Behind it, you can see one of the common's old oaks, unfortunately not looking very healthy.

You can see from where the fallen tree has broken at the base that the interior has lost all strength. It is light and spongy. Fungi have eaten away all the hard, supportive material. A large fan of bracket fungus, its fruiting body, is right there at the base.

But look also at the photos below. There are some suprisingly big holes where beetle larvae have bored through and fed, as well as a number of smaller holes. The big ones are nearly a centimetre across.

Soft wood in the centre of a fallen tree on West Wickham common

Holes made by beetle larvae in a fallen tree on West Wickham common

You can also see, on the bottom photo which is of the outer layers of the tree, some dark strands that seem to delve into and through the wood. These are the edges of zones of mycelium, the strands of fungus that grow inside the tree. The beetle holes seem not to cross over those dark zones, so perhaps the beetle larvae preferred the taste of one sort of fungus, or didn't like the taste of those edge zones. Or, perhaps it's the other way round, and the fungi started to grow in the beetle tunnels and spread out from there.