By Therebelmc
Derbyshire,
United Kingdom 
I have attached a photo of a fruiting body that is growing on my mountain ash. prior to this appearing i had about a hundred toadstools around the base of the tree around May time. the bark has detatched itself from around a quarter of the trunk and part of the tree has died. does anyone recognize this and is it as i fear the dreaded Honey fungus ?
4 Jul, 2012
Answers
That's about all I can say too.
4 Jul, 2012
Thank you. feel better already. do i need to do anything about it or let it go about it's business ?
4 Jul, 2012
It isn't honey fungus, but I'm sorry to say its not good news nonetheless. This is a shelf or bracket fungus, as the others say, but once the tree is infected, there's nothing you can do about it. It does damage the tree, often causing parts to die off, depending where the fungus has arisen - keep checking the tree for safety reasons, or you may find one day it falls over or a large limb drops off. Given there were initially fungal bodies at the roots, its possible the roots are damaged anyway, and it might be safer to have it taken down before it gets worse. You can test how unstable it is (or not) by leaning on it ...
4 Jul, 2012
Thanks Bamboo I really should have said all that!
4 Jul, 2012
LOL, I wish you had, I don't like giving out bad news;-))
4 Jul, 2012
Me neither which is probably why I didn't - lol
4 Jul, 2012
Well, the good news is - Not Honey Fungus.
Not so good news is - I have no idea, other than to suggest it is a bracket fungus of some kind.
4 Jul, 2012