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Dead beech tree in beech hedge, pest?

When we were trimming the beech hedge in our garden this year we found a few dead branches that just snapped off, initially not alarmed, I then followed the dead branches and realised that actually it was one whole bush/tree/plant (what do you call the individual plants in a hedge?) that was dead. It has a whiteish pink fungus all over it. I separated these branches from the rest, thinking I wouldn't shred them, I would burn them, but then thought perhaps we should try to find out what it is. I have just gone outside to get a couple of the branches to photograph, and there is now a lot less of the stuff on the branches I separated, some of them have no visible signs left at all. They have been lying on the lawn for 7 days. Does anyone know what this is?

 

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Posts

  • Can you show us a cross-section of the trunk please - I think that's more important than what's on the outside of the tree/bush, which may have happened after it died. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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     Hope these are of some use to you, thank you for taking the time to help me.

  • Hmmmm - definintely dead image and by zooming in on the top pic I can see that the bit where the tree grows - the outer layer beneath the bark - looks quite wrong, and the bark has all died and is peeling off.  

    However, I'm a country girl and a gardener, but not a tree expert - there are some very knowledgeable people on here who may well be able to decipher the clues we've got.

    Come on chaps and chap-esses!  Someone else's turn! image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    My guess is that the fungus grew on the dead branches rather than killed the plant



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • I agree nut, that was my thought - so can we find out why this one died so the rest don't go the same wayimage


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    When lumps of my privet died it was down to mice/voles chewing the bark off in a hard winter



    In the sticks near Peterborough
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