Wood, or rather the inside of wood, is a bit like tonnes of tubes that are attached via "doors" which are spaced-out amongst the tubes.
These tubes are are actually the walls of living cells, they have however been dead for a long time and literally only the skeleton remains. The hollow tubes, the cell walls, are the skeleton of those cells.
Fungi, attach themselves to wood and secrete enzymes which literally eat their way through the wood. As they eat they destroy the "doors" between the tubes and this creates vast open gaps in the wood, making it POROUS!
This allows water to invade the open spaces of the wood as it is absorbed through the pores that have been made by the fungi.
This makes the wood HUMID which actually helps fungal growth, which in-turn makes the wood decay quicker.
As the wood becomes more porous it also starts supporting bacterial growth aswell as they too favour these conditions. Fungi and bacteria team-up and eat through the soft SUMMER growth rings and then the harder WINTER growth rings until there's no more wood!
Thanks
Adam :-) X
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