Latest news with #honeyfungus
Daily Mail
16 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I'm a gardening expert... if you see THREE key warning signs you should call a tree surgeon immediately
A horticulturist has warned Brits to look out for signs of a deadly yellow fungus that can cause trees to collapse suddenly. Japanese knotweed and bamboo infestations may keep homeowners up at night but there is a less known garden scurge that can be just as destructive. Honey fungus grows at the base of trees and can 'wreak havoc' in gardens and destroy property if not spotted soon. It has been described as the 'most destructive fungal disease in the UK' and spreads rapidly underground. The fungus can attack roots up to 30metres away, infecting and killing them before causing the dead wood to decay. Guy Barter, chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticulture Society (RHS), told MailOnline: 'Early warning signs include honey-coloured toadstools in autumn hence the name. 'The infection is gradual typically with part of the tree dying first, followed by the rest of plant. 'In summer affected plants succumb quite quickly over a week or two.' The only way to remove honey fungus is by burning the infected root or taking it to a landfill. Key symptoms of the fungus are cracking bark, an absence of flowers and more specifically, small mushrooms growing around the base of a tree. The honey-coloured mushrooms grow in clumps and can also pop up around your garden if the rhizomorphs (the fungus' root) has spread underground. It comes after a family escaped disaster by 'inches' when undetected honey fungus sent a giant tree in their backgarden flying. Lauren Gordon, 49, was letting her dog out in their backgarden in Herfordshite when she heard a massive bang and a squeal from the miniature cavachon. She said: 'My daughter thought she heard a gun going off. 'Everyone was completely bewildered and because it was very dark we couldn't see where it landed but it missed the back of the kitchen by inches. 'It wasn't even wobbling around it just fell and all the roots had come out of the ground.' Ms Gordon said she had 'absolutely no idea' there was anything wrong with the tree. 'We had a few tree surgeons over and apparently honey fungus has been growing in the garden for 10 years,' she explained. 'It runs underground so now we're concerned for all the other trees in the area.' She is now worried about what this means for the other trees in the area. Ms Gordon said: 'It's costing a lot to get it removed it's going to take days to remove it. 'We're very lucky it would have been awful if it squashed the dog or hit the kids.' But with the increasingly hot weather honey fungus could be on the rise across the UK because it is generally found in hot and dry conditions. So before letting your pooch roam free in the garden... check for golden toadstools.
Telegraph
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Doing mushrooms on the Reeves estate
Rachel Reeves has enough on her plate without having to worry about gardening. But the alarm bells have been sounded at the Chancellor's grace-and-favour country pile Dorneywood, which has been gripped by an outbreak of honey fungus. The species of invasive mushrooms have already killed off one birch tree on Reeves's estate; and two nearby beeches could be next. Dorneywood's trustees have now requested permission from the local council to fell them before they cause any more problems. Will this approach to dead wood guide Reeves as she slashes wasteful Whitehall spending in her spending review in 11 days' time? Gary Lineker or crispy duck? Advertising man Malcolm Green is to blame for why former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker became the face of Walkers crisps. Asked to come up with an ad campaign to revive Leicester-based crisps brand Walkers in the mid-1990s, Green asked Lineker – 'one of Leicester's most famous sons' – to front a 'no more Mr Nice Guy' campaign. However his idea was rejected in favour of a CGI crispy duck. 'When that campaign flopped, we were asked to dust off the Lineker idea and shoot it as a one-off' while another campaign was thought up. 'That 'one-off' went on to become the longest-running ad campaign in Europe,' Green told The Jewish Chronicle. 'Maybe I should have persuaded Walkers to have more faith in that crispy duck? She certainly wouldn't have been as controversial.' Howzat, prayerfully How do cathedral choirs get through the countless sermons they must endure? They play 'sermon cricket', according to new book Evensong – Notes from the Choir by Tim Popple, an alto lay clerk at Bristol cathedral. Under its scoring system a preacher is awarded one run for mentioning God, four runs for Jesus and six for Satan or the Devil. But if the preacher uses the words I or me, a wicket falls. Popple explains: 'The better the score, the more the preacher spoke about faith and less about themselves.' When 10 wickets fall, choristers may feel they are no longer under any obligation to listen. Jenkyns's plunger A live interview with elected Reform UK Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Dame Andrea Jenkyns to defend her party against charges of 'fantasy economics' was interrupted on GB News this week when her eight-year-old son Clifford burst into her home office to announce that the family lavatory was blocked. The interview with presenter Martin Daubney ended swiftly. Concerned, I got in touch with the ex-Tory MP. 'Was the issue dealt with?' I asked her. 'Yes, I used the plunger,' replied Jenkyns. Room service for Fern! TV presenter Fern Britton is mystified by the current fad for hi-tech hotel rooms. 'They baffle me: All dark lighting, no mirrors – and no three-pin plug sockets anymore. It's all USB ports,' she says. 'I spent a night in a hotel in Manchester. I didn't know how to turn the television down or off, and I couldn't turn the lights out – so I went to bed, wrapped up in a scarf.' We've all been there Fern. Downton and out The third Downton Abbey film – out in September – looks like it will be the last one. 'The clue is in the title: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,' Hugh Bonneville, who plays the 7th Earl of Grantham, told an audience at the Goodwoof dog festival at Goodwood House, West Sussex. 'We're all done and dusted. We've had an amazing 15 years.' Perhaps Bonneville can reprise his role as Mr Brown in Paddington The Musical when it opens in the West End in November? 'I won't be singing,' he says, disappointingly. What a shame. Miles better Sports news! After the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow decided to replace the 1,500 metres with the mile, the British Weights and Measures Association – I am an honorary member – wants it to become permanent. Its director John Gardner has written to the organisers pointing out it is the first race over a mile at the Games since 1966, and is 'a tribute to the race in Vancouver in 1954 between Roger Bannister and Australia's John Landy, the only two sub-four-minute runners in the world at the time'. I rather agree.
