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Leprieuria bacillum, Family Xylariaceae
Round, black fruiting bodies (?) of about 1/2 cm diameter on short, black stalks. When the balls fall off, only the stalks remain scattered along the wood.
Forest of the Sumidero Canyon National Park, Chiapas, Mexico.
Spotted on Jan 20, 2013
Submitted on Jan 29, 2013
10 Comments
It interested me what Roo suggested on your Mushroom Observer page. Did you actually knock any of the balls off to leave just the stalk yourself? What I'm getting at is are you sure that the stalks really are the stems which hold the balls or could they be a separate fungus?
Added an additional picture.
Thanks Argy, someone at Mushroom Observer suggested that it was Leprieuria bacillum (http://eol.org/pages/1031070/overview). This one has stalks that are identical but doesn't show the spherical bodies. The one you found (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24634827@N0...) also looks like it, except for the color, which I suppose could vary from place to place.
By the way, your comment is in my e-mail, but does't appear here. Weird.
Thank you Yuko.
Wow! Amazing find!
Thank you to Mushroom Observer Org for the identification of this fungus.
Thank you gully.moy, I posted in on Mushroomobserver to see what happens.
Fascinating. Consider posting them on Mushroom Observer to get an ID and because they're worth it :-)
http://mushroomobserver.org/
Could the balls be the fruiting bodies of Dead Man's Fingers?
Interesting.. this will be good to ID.