A lady has downed trees from tornado few months ago and I am cutting some of it for her for free wood. It's actually too much work... hard to get to, can't get my truck closer than 50 yards and it's a mess of trees and limbs all stuck together... mess! Anyway, a water oak... the bark, limbs, trunk looked odd. Couldn't figure it out! It finally dawned on me... looks like the tornado ripped bark off! Then deposited dirt on it! I rub my finger on the dusty n dirty parts... dirt! How my feeble brain made the deduction... I noticed when I rubbed my finger on the bare areas, it is dirt. Asked myself, now this tree's main trunk and these limbs are off the ground a few feet due to a huge rootball... so, how did this dirt get on it... this tree has never seen the ground! Oh yeah, tornado! Some of this, you can see bare areas and some with a few pieces of bark left... all that bare has been ripped. I am shocked that all the rains we have had has not washed that dirt off, that is bizarre! It's thick with dust, dirt. BTW, the bark was ripped from only one side of the tree. I did not see this on white oak, maple, sweet gum... only this water oak. They seem to have tough bark, that's weird, too. What you are looking at here is a big limb. The trunk is, oh, 26-28" DBH. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
That looks like some kind of fungus stuff I have seen on those type oak trees. It's powdery and smooth Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
Good source for wood, but i hear ya on the tangled mess a tornado makes of the woods and the work involved in retrieving it. I have access to lots of wood the next town over from a May 2018 tornado here. Back woods of yards and the logistics involved are a bit too much work for me. Hit or miss in lots of areas. Hit my town too, but we were unscathed, luckily. Matter of fact, i lined up a score for the Winter right around the corner from me. Ladies back woods had trees down from same storm. Ill post a thread when i start working it. I agree with clemsonfor as ive seen similar fungus on oaks around here.
You can actually see the bark still on it. The outer part , almost like falls off. You have that thin powdery bark layer than the inner bark. But in your pics you can see it. Where the dogs tore it off and near the cut. You can see the brown inner bark. But it's not like normal bark. But I would say almost certainly that it's a fungus. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I don't know what it is but tornadoes do weird stuff. Like peel asphalt off of roads. It's like a giant sandblaster. Would be interesting to look at the 'dirt' under a microscope. This tornado was rated F3, which is 158-206mph.
They do. I'm not saying they don't That first pic, I can see the bark on it and that fungus that only leaves a thin flakey like covering in place of normal bark. The second pic is the one I am talking about where the outer grey flaky fungus/bark fell off and you can see the brown part that's the inner bark. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I see that too. Fungus gets on the trees, they either are dying or will die. I've seen it on red, white and water oaks
I see more trees the the average firewood guy. Not only do I cut and burn my own wood, I am a Forester, who's job is timber harvesting operations. While I can't name the fungus, I can almost say for certain it is one. I'm more a forest economist than a forest pathologist, so my disease recognition is not as good as someone who specializes in that aspect of forestry. If we really want to know, I can make a few calls, use the internet and probably have it pinned down to the scientific family. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I am not convinced. Yet. It's like an outer layer of bark is gone. But I'm open. Here are more pics. A negative for my case is when I wipe up a finger full of "dirt, " its gray. And dust-like. Wish I had a microscope! Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
Yep that's the mold and or spores your wipeing off. The healthy outer bark falls off and just a thin layer is left alone with sickly inner bark. I will get y'all an answer. I will get back at some point. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
Ok Google "hypoxylon canker" you will see pictures very similar to your returned in the result. I have heard of this before but not being a forest pathologist I can't say it right off hand. One quick Google search I found the cause though. It's caused from environmental stresses such as drought. Water oaks are susceptible too it, which is the type of oak I see it on most common, well Willow oak too, but those too are very similar species. Both are red oaks. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I was thinking the same thing. If that was dirt and not bark you would be lucky to make three cuts through that tree before you started smoking! Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
