dead man's fingers

Description:

It is characterized by its elongated upright, clavate, or strap-like stromata poking up through the ground, much like fingers. The genus Xylaria contains about 100 species of cosmopolitan fungi. Polymorpha means “many forms.” As its name suggests, it has a very variable but often club-shaped fruiting body (stroma) resembling burned wood

Habitat:

It is a common inhabitant of forest and woodland areas, usually growing from the bases of rotting or injured tree stumps and decaying wood. It has also been known to colonise substrates like woody legume pods, petioles, and herbaceous stems

Notes:

The dark fruiting body (often black or brown, but sometimes shades of blue/green) is surprisingly white on the inside, with a blackened dotted area all around. This blackened surrounding area is made up of tiny structures called perithecia. The perithecia hold a layer of asci which contain the ascospores. The asci elongate into the ostiole, and discharge the ascospores outward. The spore distribution is a lengthy process, sometimes taking several months to complete this part of the life cycle, this is not a common trait amongst fungi, as is normally a much swifter process.