This Sabal Palm toppled over during Hurricane Ian (September 2022). The tree was already dead because it was infected with the Butt Rot Fungus (Gandoderma zonatum). Butt Rot is a disease that infects the roots and lower trunk of the palm eventually causing it to die. The fungus itself is a mass of filiments that live in the soil and attack the tissue of living palm trees. When conditions are right shelf-like protrusions from the trunk form which are the reproductive structures called conks. They have the same function as mushrooms. The underside of the conk has pores by which the spores exit and are dispersed by the wind. It is impossible to know if a tree has been infected until the conks appear.
Now that the tree has died and fallen, the Butt Rot Fungus continues on, along with insects, bacteria and other organisms, to do the work of decomposition, recycling the tree's nutrients back into the ecosystem. Come back later and see how it has changed.
