Is there a mycologist in the house?

 http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/d6975da386_1.22MB

The linked picture is posted on behalf of Spider who is currently outside  
making the most of the clement weather.

A few years ago she transplanted into a pot a wind- or bird- sown Birch  
seedling.
Now it needs to be moved, but on removing the pot a number of fungal  
fruiting bodies were revealed.
The gills are light coloured and it has no particular smell.

Can anyone advise please whether this is harmful or not? Spider is always  
cautious about honey fungus because we have had it in the garden before.

Many thanks

 

 

Spider's obviously let the fly loose :). Sorry but clicking the link
isn't showing anything up for me other than a load of ad-type text so
can't comment on your (supposed) pic. But here's a link to the RHS
page on honey fungus which might help you to  at least (I hope) rule
honey fungus out as the problem.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?PID 0

Cheers
Jake
==============================================
Gardening at the dry end (east) of Swansea Bay
in between reading anything by JRR Tolkien.

www.rivendell.org.uk

 

Thanks Jake!

The picture is there. Have a look at the bottom of the page and click on  
'Click here to download'.

RG

 

Thanks Mr Spider. I'd suggest that using a photo posting site such as
Flickr or Photobucket (and there are loads of others which other
posters will probably recommend) is better - we tend to ignore "click
to download" links because we never know what we will end up
downloading.

Anyhow, it certainly isn't honey fungus. At this time of year, we all
get harmless fungi growing all over the place - after all they're
opportunistic little blighters.I may have a weed free lawn but I've
got litttle fungi growing in various places. I'm going to guess that,
in this case, the pot was allowed to dry out a bit and the compost
shrank and let some light in down the sides and the opportunists used
that to grow. Their spores might have been in the compost when the pot
was planted.

I can't identify what they are but I'll lay an odds on bet that
they're harmless. If you want to be sure (and want to have some
freedom for a few nights out in the local  free of restraining webs),
fry a few in some olive oil and offer a late night snack. Only joking
of course. :)

You know, I've often wondered why female spiders always seem to be
bigger than the males. But that's another topic! :)))

Cheers
Jake
==============================================
Gardening at the dry end (east) of Swansea Bay
in between reading anything by JRR Tolkien.

www.rivendell.org.uk

 On 03/09/2011 22:18, Jake wrote:

 >

Hah!  Caught you conspiring to poison the spider, eh? Fangs for the
public warning ;}


from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay