Howdy Austin,
Justinian here and I wanted to share some photos of wood decay fungi that I have come across in town. Currently I am working with some local mycologists to identify some of these. I will update once I have some positive identification on these fungi!
Unless an arborist in the field has a strong mycological background it is pretty rare that most urban/sales arborists can accurately identify wood decay fungi.
Whenever I hear absolutes from a sales guy in the field I take it with a grain of salt.
To paraphrase Dr. Christopher J. Luley as stated in his book “Wood decay fungi”, to simply call something “ganoderma” really isn’t saying much.
To avoid this myself, I frequently rely on our local Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic lab at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Link located here:
The benefit to sending it to an appropriate lab can be a guide for appropriate next steps and can enhance the level of assessment instead of someone’s gut feeling.
Sure there are the “Big Five” according to Dr. Luley, which are both commonly found in the urban environment and could have significant implications since they could indicate root rot or basal decay.
He also goes on to mention that appropriate risk evaluations should take place. This can be done by certified professionals.
In some cases management may be limited to improving site conditions to increase tree health vigor as there could be non existing fungicidal treatments.
Some additional resources I utilize as guide are the following:
- Wood Decay Fungi: Common to Urban Living Trees in the Northeast & Central United States, by Christopher J. Luley, Ph.D.
- TreeRot.com by Christopher J. Luley, Ph.D.
- MushroomExpert.com by Michael Kuo
Big Tree Shady City 
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