38 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



PRODUCTION OF SPOROPHORES FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF THE HOST 



Discussion of Literature 



Scattered throughout the literature on forest pathology are brief 

 references bearing on the longevity of the fruiting bodies of the more 

 important forest tree fungi which attack the host when alive and 

 develop upon it when dead. Among these and others are found 

 references which deal with more or less purely saprophytic fungi, but 

 which are included in order to complete the available data on the 

 subject of sporophore longevity upon down and dead material. These 

 references are. in the main, brief statements by the authors as to 

 whether or not the fungi under discussion, either as vegetative 

 mycelium in the wood, or as old or newly produced fruiting bodies, 

 continue viable for any length of time after the death of the host. 

 A few contradictory references are found, but the majority express 

 the opinion that the sporophores of certain fungi remain viable and 

 new ones are produced after the tree is down and dead. Buller,'' * 

 and Buller and Cameron "^ have .shown that the fruiting bodies of a 

 number of the common Hymenomycetes will undergo desiccation for 

 long periods without losing their ability to produce spores. The fungi 

 used in the above experiments are not important from the viewpoint 

 of forest pathology, and the information is given to indicate the pos- 

 sible longevity of some of our more harmful heart-destroying species, 

 and the bearing of this phase upon the problem here treated. 



In describing the "pecky" rot of Taxoduini distichum and Liho- 

 cedrus decurrcns, von Schrenk -" makes the interesting statement that 

 "this wood can be utilized for many purposes even when much 

 rotted, and in neither case does the mycelium grow after the tree had 

 once been cut down." Later in 1900,^^ writing an account of the fungi 

 found attacking New England conifers, he states that the sporophores 

 of the following fungi develop upon the standing living hosts, as well 

 as upon those which have been cut down : Poly poms schiveinitsii, 

 Pomes piuicola, Trametcs pini. Polyporus sulphureus, Peoria suhacida, 

 and Poria vaporaria. In regard to Tramctes pini, he states "the 

 sporophores . . . grow both on living and fallen trees. They 

 were found on trees which had been cut down four years before, and 

 new ones were constantly appearing. It is this faculty of fruiting on 

 dead trees that must enable this fungus to spread through a forest in 

 a very short time, and accounts for the fact that it does so." No 

 evidence is brought forth that the characteristic form of decay con- 

 tinues in the fallen tree, and he further states that "the present view 



