Phoebe B writes
Can anyone help please. A neighbour has a fungi problem.

This weird fungus was growing on our Ash Tree that was dying. It was
very rubbery and hard, and no-one seemed to know what it was. We were
advised to cut the Ash Tree down, which we did but the Tree Surgeon
couldn't take the stump out as it was too big. We have since built a
large concrete base over it and put up a summer house. Believe it or
not, that same weird fungus has appeared on / in / through our carpet
in the summer house !! What can we do about it ?
The fungus that looks the closest is Inonotus Dryadeus. However, the
picture shows it weeping. The fungus coming up through our summer house
floor (that was around the base of the tree and progressing up the
trunk in places) is smooth and if you push it it is very resilient
(I.e. you cannot scrape or break it off, as it just goes a little brown
and bends a bit). How on earth could it have gone through a layer of
concrete, the wooden floor of the summer house and both the underlay
and carpet ?

The fungus that you see is just the fruiting body. The main 'plant' is
the mycelium - a mass of fine hairs. So it is possible for the fine
hairs to creep all over the place, and then throw up a fruiting body
when conditions are right. Alternatively, it could be a completely new
growth carried by spores. Fungus spores are very light, and it's a fair
bet to say that the spores of the commoner fungi are everywhere, and
will take root whenever conditions are right (which is how they got into
the dying ash tree in the first place).
--
Kay