Dead Man’s fingers

[Mystic Wolf]

Xylaria polymorpha Dead Man’s fingers
https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/xylaria-polymorpha.php

Phylum: Ascomycota - Class: Sordariomycetes - Order: Xylariales - Family: Xylariaceae

Appears throughout the year at the base of beechwood stumps and occasionally on other buried hardwoods. Dead Man's Fingers is a very apt common name for this dull-looking species, which usually arises in tufts of three to six fingers that are often bent and give the impression of arthritic black knuckles.
  Often appearing in palmate bunches, the stromata comprise white infertile finger-like forms with a black coating containing the flasks within which the asci (singular ascus) produce their spores. Known as 'flask fungi', these black compound fruitbodies are difficult to spot in dark woodlands.
  A fairly common species in Britain and Ireland, Xylaria polymorpha is found also throughout mainland Europe and in many parts of North America.

Taxonomic history

The basionym (original scientific name) Sphaeria polymorpha was given to this ascomycetous fungus in 1797 by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon.

Over the years this morbid-looking fungus has acquired many other scientific names (synonyms) including Hypoxylon polymorphum, (Pers.) Mont., Xylaria corrugata Har. & Pat., Xylaria obovata (Berk.) Berk., and Xylaria rugosa Sacc. Its currently accepted name Xylaria polymorpha dates from 1824, when Scottish mycologist and illustrator Robert Kaye Greville (1794 - 1866) transferred it to the genus Xylaria.

A close-up picture of the surface of an adult fruitbody is shown above, and its granular form is clearly evident; however, the specific epithet polymorpha comes not from the variable surface texture but from the many and varied forms that these fruitbodies can take. Polymorpha means, literally, in many shapes.

Concealed beneath those surface bumps are roundish chambers lined with spore-producing structures known as asci - hence these fungi belong to the phylum Ascomycota, the largest (by species numbers) section of the fungal kingdom.

Dead Man's Finger's is not generally considered to be an edible fungus.

The brownish Dead Man's Fingers shown on the left are in between the asexual and sexual reproductive phases of this ascomycetous fungus.
The beautiful specimens of Xylaria polymorpha shown on the left are at the conidial (asexual) spore-producing stage, when the 'fingers' often turn pale blue.
This splendid picture was taken by Andrea Aspenson in Wisconsin, USA, and is shown with her kind permission.

Many of the fungi whose lifecycles include both asexual (via conidiospores) and sexual (via either ascospores or basidiospores caused great confusion in the early days of fungal taxonomy. Several of them were given separate binomial scientific names for each of these stages, because they were thought to be quite different species. If you compare the light blue 'Dead Man's Fingers' with those in the picture at the top of this page, I think you will readily accept that this was hardly a stupid mistake but quite understandable.

Habitat & Ecological role	Saprobic, and so found on or near (and connected) to the stumps of dead beech trees and, less frequently, other broadleaf tree stumps. Xylaria comes from the same Greek work as xylem, and simply means wood. Dead Man's Fingers are indeed wood-rotting fungi, but they specialize in consuming neither the softish cellulose nor the much tougher lignin but rather the polysaccharides - glucan and other minority content compounds of timber that bind the cellulose and lignin together to form what we recognize as wood. As a result, when these and various other ascomycetous fungi have consumed what they can of a dead stump the remainder is a nutrient-rich soft mess that insects and other small creatures are able to feed upon (if other cellulose- or lignin-rotting fungi haven't found it first).
Season	Mainly seen in summer and autumn, but some fruitbodies can usually be found throughout the year. Producing ascospores in autumn and early winter.
Similar species	Xylaria longipes is similar but slimmer, smaller, and less robust. Its fruitbodies are more obviously stalked clubs and they occur most often on the stumps and fallen branches of sycamore trees as well as beeches.

[SunKat]

Gruesome name but also pretty cool!

[Carmen Elsa Irarragorri Wyland]

Yes, the name is gruesome, but that i what they look-like!

LOL!