Apparent Mycorrhizae sheaths on Trident Maple Roots

[hemmy]

I dug this trident maple yesterday and found these white fungal(?) sheaths on many roots. When wet, it was thick and spongy and could be scratched away to reveal the outer portion of the root beneath. They appear similar to images at the below site, but this is the first time I’ve encountered it. They also appear similar to images of arbuscular mycorrhiza, which appear to be a type of endomycorrhiza that penetrate the root cells but also produce visible sheaths. I’m posting some pics since I couldn’t find any similar images here using my search terms.

https://mycorrhizas.info/ecm.html

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

How is the health of your tree? If it is good, nothing to worry about.

If the trident doesn't look good, check images for snow mold. Usually it is not pathogenic, but can occasionally cause trouble by being so spongey & rubbery that it blocks water uptake.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Good pictures! Awesome documentation.
But this seems to be mycelium eating away dead roots. Mycorrhizae don't usually have sheaths that fat and that agressive, because it would suffocate the root and prevent all adventitious growth.
That's at least, from my point of view. The only times I've seen this was with dead or dying trees. I've been in the mycorrhizae game for some 6 years now, and this doesn't fit in with the things I've seen before.

 

[-norwegian_blue-]

Hmm, very interesting. Never seen that in my hundreds of JMs or dozens of TMs. Curious to see what others think!

 

[hemmy]

How is the health of your tree? If it is good, nothing to worry about.

If the trident doesn't look good, check images for snow mold. Usually it is not pathogenic, but can occasionally cause trouble by being so spongey & rubbery that it blocks water uptake.

It was in the ground and grew strongly after a trunk chop. I’ve had a type of snow mold in a grow box and it was more disseminated through the matrix. But I’m sure there are millions of fungus. Thanks

 

[hemmy]

But this seems to be mycelium eating away dead roots. Mycorrhizae don't usually have sheaths that fat and that agressive, because it would suffocate the root and prevent all adventitious growth.

That was my thought on the thickness. I ended up pruning most it away. It was only on roots from 1mm to a few mms thick. But they appeared to be live. Important note, the original zoom pictures were all taken this morning after digging and putting up yesterday. So they dried out before the photos.

To your and Leo’s point, maybe it was eating roots that died off during after the trunk chop. Certainly odd.