By Gardenelf
Middlesex,
United Kingdom 
Is it the END of this Bramley Apple Tree? The tree is about 40 years old and has developed a fungal white growth within fissures on dead branches. The tree produced lots of fruit last autumn and has flowered well this spring. The leaves also appear healthy, but there are several dead branches. The lady who owns it has informed me that some fungal bodies appeared at the base of the trunk earlier this year - possibly Honey Fungus? They were not brackets and have since died off.
24 May, 2010
Previous question
Probably just a knackered old apple tree. In past days when we had an orchard with very large old trees, a couple of them failed rapidly from fruiting freely to getting diseased very quickly indeed. They were taken down and cremated! We redeveloped the site and put in a ring of trees on size limiting root stock, as in our present garden. If they don't perform it is easy to take them out and replace.
24 May, 2010