Press/News

In this post we look at the life cycle of Dry Rot – the most mysterious of wood rotting funghi.

Like wood boring beetles, fungi too have their own lifecycle and we are now going to look at  the lifecycle of probably the most economically important species of fungal decay in buildings, the True Dry rot fungus, otherwise known as Serpula lacrymans.

Dry Rot needs 3 elements to continue its growth within timber. These are water, air and a food source, in this case timber. The fungus obtains its food from the timber by breaking down the cell walls of the timber which ultimately results in a loss of strength in the timber and eventually the overall collapse of the timber. For the purposes of this example we will assume that the timber has a moisture content of between 25% and 30% for optimum germination and growth of the fungus.

The life cycle starts with a spore landing on the timber in the correct environment. The spores are omnipresent which means that they are in the atmosphere all the time. If you were to take a sample of the air in the room that you are in and micro filtered it down then we would more than likely see that dry rot spores were evident in the filters. As the spores land on the timber they germinate and produce hyphee growth.

 This is a similar process to that of placing seeds in compost. The hyphee growth is the root of the spores. The hyphee growth then mass and colonise together to produce mycelium growth – this is white, and almost “fluffy” in appearance. After a period of time the Dry Rot becomes stressed – this happens when one of the 3 necessary elements for growth (water, air or food) is removed or if the dry rot is in the vicinity of light.

When stressed the Dry Rot produces a sporophore or fruiting body which is a self reproduction organ. This allows the spore bearing surface of the sporohfore to shed into the atmosphere so that the new spores can land again, hopefully in the right environment to carry on germinating and extending the growth of the Dry Rot.

The presence of Dry Rot is usually associated with a building defect allowing ingress of moisture – for example, a leaking gutter or a cracked down pipe. If a building is correctly maintained and kept relatively water tight then generally this would preclude the presence of Dry Rot. Lets now look in detail at the various parts of the life cycle.

Here we see a photographic represenation of the Dry Rot lifecycle:

A piece of wood which has the correct moisture content

The lifecycle begins when the spores land on the timber

The hyphee growth become visible

The hyphee growth colonise to produce mycelium growth

When stressed the dry rot produces a fruiting body to reproduce

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