Rigidoporus ulmarius in the Cambridge Botanic Garden

Abstract

This photograph appeared in the Cambridge Evening News in September 2002 under the caption: “Giant … the garden's Jane Grimes with a Rigidoporus ulmarius nearly 5 m in circumference”. This reminded me that I had earlier been shown another very large specimen of this fungus in Kew Gardens. On contacting Alick Henrici as to this specimen in July 2003, he informed me that the Kew fungus had appeared some years ago in the Guinness Book of Records. In the 1995 edition of this work it was entered as the Largest Tree Fungus, measuring (in 1992) 150 x 144 cm with a circumference of 454 cm, and in the 1999 edition, measured in 1995, the size was recorded as 163 x 140 cm with a circumference of 480 cm. This meant that the Cambridge specimen might be of world class, so Jane, with arborist David Franklin and myself forthwith went to measure it. Our results showed it a worthy contender but less large at 150 x 133 cm diameter and 425 cm circumference.