Serious mold problem

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GlennVB

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hello everyone

We live since 3 years on a piece of land in the South of Hungary. the property was abandoned for many years and was full of wild grown trees. Mostly Robinia pseudoacacia, White poplar (Populus alba) and Common Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). As we are cleaning out the land we discovered a black mold on many of the trunks of the trees. It is a sooty like mold starting at ground level. higher parts of the trees seem to be fine. It’s mostly affecting Robinia but 1 hackberry is affected as well. 5 km away from the property we discovered a planted pine forest where many of the trees seem to have the same problem. It appears on old robinia fencing poles as well.

On the living trees, the mold seems to grow on the outside of the bark, not under it. The trees which are worst affected are loosing their bark. Under some of the trees the ground gets black as well.

Does anybody know what this is and what to do about it?

Sorry for the bad English and thanks in advance!

View attachment 899827View attachment 899833View attachment 899834View attachment 899835View attachment 899836
 
A couple of those look like fire damage. Is that possible?

If that is black sooty mold, that is most often caused by certain insects feeding and dropping sugary waste. The mild then grows on that sugar.

Another source of sugar to feed such mold is bacterial wetwood. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/bacterial-wetwood-2-910/
But it doesn't look quite like that.

In all 3 cases, the black isn't the problem, but a result of other issues.

(This is all from looking on a phone screen while wait for someone...I'll look again on computer at home tonight)
 
I agree with ATH--that looks like fire damage. Does not look like mold. Ask around and you may learn about fire in the area in years past.
 
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