Hi Thornton workers!
I am planning the next churchyard working party this Saturday, 15th October form 10 until 12 noon.
We need to reclaim part of the new churchyard which is overgrown with brambles, scrubby trees and a soil bank. We won’t complete the job in one morning but if we could make a start that would be great.
If you can join us for even a short time – thank you. It would be great if you could let others know in case they can join us.
Please bring any tools you think would be useful, stout gloves and a drink.
Shirley (Churchwarden)
St Peter’s churchyard
For those who have walked through the churchyard and marvelled at the magnificent fungus growing around the beech trees – here are the facts about this particular fungus.
It has been identified as Meripilus giganteus – This tree fungi is found mostly on beech trees in the UK, and sometimes on other broadleaved trees.
It affects the main root structure of the trees making them brittle and liable to fracture, both along and across the grain of the tree.
The fungi have many layers varying in size from about 100-200mm across, which grow from a fungal mass. This fungal mass is the area which is usually connected to the tree by either sitting in the tree’s buttresses or sometimes on top of the soil which is above the roots, this can be found up to several metres aways from the tree.
These fungi can be found growing up to the size of 1 metre across in the correct conditions.
You can gently squeeze these fungi on the underneath and after 15-20 minutes it should come up with a bruising affect. This is another sign to tell whether it is a correct identification.
Looking for signs without the fungi being there isn’t easy. The crown isn’t a reliable source of whether to find it as many trees with these fungi have had a full dense foliage in the crown and have still uprooted, others have died standing. It’s also hard to tell the condition of the tree’s roots as sometimes the fungi are confined to the deeper root system.
These fungi are devasting the trees in St Peter’s churchyard and it costs thousands for the trees to be taken down, which they have to be on safety grounds.
Thornton 