Whilst I love looking up at the autumn hues, I know very little about trees. They have always felt like an overwhelming world to learn about, and without anyone tree confident to show me the branches it is something I have let evade me. With the help of colleagues and time I am starting to learn how to identify a few, with varied success, and although it feels like the more I learn the more I realise I don’t know, even my small steps have given me so much more to see in the woods which is wonderful!
One tree I have had to learn a lot about quite quickly is Ash. Ash trees are under great threat from a fungus (_Hymenoscyphus fraxineus_) which causes Ash dieback disease. As many of us know this has caused a huge decline in Ash from our woodlands as many Ash trees have had to be felled due to safety concerns of decay inside the tree. This can cause dead branches to drop and eventually trees to fall unexpectedly. This tree trunk is from a felled Ash tree and you can see the dark patch in the middle where ash dieback is slowing killing the tree.
Since my last post about chestnut trees as a symbol of autumn, I've been reflecting on sweet chestnut blight (_Cryphonectria parasitica_). This disease causes the brown leaves now associated with sweet chestnuts throughout summer and autumn. These diseased trees, or survivors, symbolize perseverance, and perhaps, future strength.
In other thoughts, the fruiting bodies of many fungi pop up all over the place in autumn, making it a great time to look for and learn about mushrooms. If I am bad at identifying trees, I am far far worse at identifying fungi but I have found a fun one to get started with is Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) which looks exactly how it sounds - like the top of a candle wick that has been snuffed out. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos whenever I found some but google won’t let you down if you’re interested! As an alternative offering, this photo is of another fungus of which the species is so far unknown to me, I will get back to you once I have created and filled more brain space for fungus knowledge.