Dry Rot Guide
Serpula lacrymans
Appearance
- Mycellium: silky white sheet and cotton wool-like cushions with lilac yellow tinges.
- Fungal strands are white to grey and brittle when dry.
- Sporophore: fleshy pancake or bracket - rusty red when mature.
- Spores: bulk spores are a reddish brown dust.
Lifecycle
- Decay fungi are living organisms which send minute threads called hyphae through damp wood, taking their food from the wood as they grow.
Habits
- It most often occurs in damp timber which is in contact with, or embedded in, wet brickwork or masonry.
- Symptoms are: timber cracking, fruiting bodies, red dust or an acrid mushroom smell.
- It has been known to transport water up three storeys of a building to an area where decay is occurring.
