Round and about in Epsom (2)

Out on the Horton Clockwise yesterday, on what must have been the first time for more days than I had realised, as in the interval this tree had fallen and been more or less cleared up. Not aware of serious wind in the recent past, since the storm that wasn't (at least around here - see 28th October - and which I had thought was just a couple of weeks ago before looking it up. Biological clock must be really speeding up with age now), but perhaps the storm did loosen the thing up, getting it ready for the next little push to finish the job.

While I was peering at the thing, clearly rotten at the base of the trunk, even though the drums from higher up looked sound enough, I was joined by a gentleman of about my age, a foreigner of some sort who has lived for a long time in this country. He seemed to know something about trees and timber and proceeded to explain that it was the wrong sort of oak, a turkey oak, and that all the trees nuts, most of whom know nothing about trees, would do much better to plant the native oak rather than the turkey oak, which grows fast but is good for nothing better than firewood and is apt to die young (often of fungus) in our damp climate. Apart from the tree nuts, all the fault of the accountants. He had the manners to check that I was not an accountant before adding in this last bit.

Checking in Wikipedia this morning, I find that, for once, the Ministry of Defence is well ahead of the game. I quote: 'the tree harbours the gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis whose larvae seriously damage the acorns of native British oaks. In 1998, the Ministry of Defence ordered the felling of all turkey oaks on its UK bases'. Perhaps I should pass this on to the chief trusties lurking at Polesden Lacey, perhaps more focused presently on all the small birds who like to eat the larvae, at the expense of the trees. And in case you are wondering, turkey oaks do indeed grow in Turkey and are nothing to do with Thanksgiving in New England.

PS: note the brown fungus emerging from the trunk, just to the right of the root and just below the red & white tape. One of several. The lower part of the trunk was also spotted with a number of holes, up to a centimetre in diameter. The work of beetles, woodpeckers or fungi?