IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Levenside Road, Vale Of Leven Industrial Estate, DUMBARTON, G82 3PE

The subject is as in Image, but the present picture was taken from further back on the road, and is a wide-angle view intended to show the construction site in context. Click on the first end-note title for related pictures.

Click on the first end-note title for other pictures showing different stages of development.

When this picture was taken, a couple of businesses had already moved in; for a closer look, see Image Click on the first end-note title for some views of this building while it was under construction.

The plot is shown here at a very early stage of the construction process. Click on the first end-note title for related pictures.

Click on the first end-note title for other pictures showing different stages of development.

Click on the first end-note title for more views of different stages of the construction process.

When this picture was taken, the building had only recently been completed. The noticeboard on the right indicates that two of the units already have occupants. This photograph shows the southern half of the building, and the vehicular entrance from the adjacent road. For a more distant view of the whole building, on the same day, see Image Click on the first end-note title for other views, some of which show the building while it was under construction.

Construction had not yet begun; the site, shown in the foreground, was still being cleared. What can be seen in the background is the rear of the adjacent workshop units mentioned in the first end-note.

["Resupinate" fungi are those which are spread out and flattened across their substrate (i.e. what they are growing on), with their spore-producing layer facing outwards.] This fungus presents a rather unusual appearance, and underwent some dramatic changes over a period of just a few weeks. The area shown in this photograph measures about five centimetres from top to bottom. The fungus is growing on the bark of a standing dead tree, from which large patches of the bark are missing. As I discovered by carefully comparing its bark with that of living trees in the same street, the host tree is Sorbus intermedia (Swedish Whitebeam), a species which is not native to Britain, but which is often planted here to line streets. As its name suggests, the tree is native to Scandinavia. The fungus shown here appears to be, at least in this location, strictly a winter species; it was in evidence from December 2007 onwards, completing its life-cycle in about two months. The following December, the same fungus appeared, although in lesser quantities, on the same tree. I was unable to identify this species myself, and even experts describe the toothed resupinates as a difficult group. However, I was later contacted by someone with considerable expertise in this field (but who declined to be credited). It was stressed that a microscopic examination is essential for an accurate identification, and that working from photographs alone is not to be recommended; however, with those provisos, Hyphodontia quercina (older syn. Grandinia quercina) was suggested as a possibility. That species is said to be widespread but under-recorded. It is also very variable in its macroscopic appearance, and coralloid forms occur.

Click on the first end-note title for related pictures showing different stages of development.