FUNGI TOWN What Britain's oldest oaks owe to rot

Most of Britain’s mature oak trees carry heart-rot, a slow hollowing of the trunk caused by fungi. Far from being a disease to fear, heart-rot is one of the reasons the trees survive as long as they do, and provide one of the richest of woodland habitats.

Rich Wright has spent over 20 years studying this process, in posts at Kew, Cardiff University and Plantlife. His research has taken him deep into the hollows of Britain's oldest trees, tracing the fungi that live there, some found nowhere else.

In this talk, Rich rethinks decay, not as an ending, but as part of how ancient oaks, and the woodland around them, keep going.