Question
fungus
Further to previous email today, I am sending picture. The fungus is not drying out, in fact seems to be going more slimy and losing the cauliflower appearance. I live in the UK so don,t know if you see this in the States.
AnswerThe picture was great without it I might have not IDed the conk. I only answered this one and let the other as a duplicate question. Thanks for the picture.
Jim
This is one of the decay fungi fruiting bodies Hericium erinaceus
The common name is Lion Mane, other names are Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Hedgehog Mushroom, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom, pom pom mushroom, or Bearded Tooth Fungus.
The decay fungi enter wounds of trees and slowly decay the woody part of the tree making it hollow. This will take many years depending on the species and health and age of the tree.
It typically appears on the wounds of living or very recently cut hardwoods, and fruiting from the wounds of living hardwoods.
The fungi itself is growing in the wood of the tree and this is the fruiting body (flower) that will produce spores that may be carried to other wounds or dead wood. You can break this friuting body off or it will dry up over time. Some say these are edible but I am not into eating wild mushrooms.
Sounds like the tree had a hollow hole in the trunk and someone filled the hole with cement. Filling these hollow places in trees with cement will do nothing for the tree and as the tree grows the cement will become loose. There is not anything that can be done to treat the decay or remove the decayed wood from the trunk. It would be like tooth decay you would need to remove all the decayed material down to solid wood and then keep the moisture from entering. There is not way to do this. The best thing to do is fertilize the tree with a general fertilizer like 10-10-10 at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the tree and watered in good. Some folks have used a plastic installation foam to seal the hole but this is not necessary.
This tree 30 yrear old willow is getting on the older side and since it sounds like it is hollow you might experience breakage of limbs as the decay grows into the limbs. I would fertilize it and try to keep it healthy so the tree can fight off or at least slow down the decaying process.
