Speciman #1 Flask Fungus



Fig. 1 Cluster of Dead Man's Fingers

Name: Xylaria polymorpha -Dead Man's Fingers

Family: Xylariaceae

Collection Date: October 4, 2011

Habitat: Growing in a cluster of about 6, on a sandy slope near a decaying tree.

Location: The West Woods in Russell, Ohio

Description: "The fruiting body is around 2-8 cm tall, 0.5-3 cm thick, very tough and hard, erect, club or finger shaped, and twisted. The outer surface is hard and crustlike, usually wrinkled, roughened, and / or cracked, black when mature but often covered with a whitish to grayish or brownish powder when very young. The interior flesh is hard or corky, white, or pallid" (Arora, 1986).

Collector: Brooke Warren

Keys Used: Aurora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. New York: Ten Speed Press.

Keying Steps:

Key to the Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi p. 52

1B. Spores produced inside mother cells called asci; fruiting body variously shaped (see pg. 55).... Ascomycotina, p. 782

Key to the Ascomycetes p. 782

1B. Not as above; growing on wood or on ground, on insects, other mushrooms, plants, etc... 2

2A. Growing on wood (but wood sometimes buried)... 3

3A. Fruiting body usually black or very dark brown (but often covered with white or grayish powder), rounded to irregularly knobby and charcoal-like or fingerlike to clublike or antlerlike and very tough or hard; asci borne in flasklike nests (perithecia) which often give the fertile area of fruiting body a minutely pimpled appearance... Pyrenomycetes, p. 878

Key to the Pyrenomycetes p. 878

1A. Growing on wood (but wood sometimes buried)... 2

2B. Fruiting body gray to dark brown or black, but sometimes covered with a white powder; common... Xylaria & Daldinia, p. 885

Key to Xylaria & Daldinia

1B. Not as above; fruiting body erect, clublike (unbranched) or antlerlike (branched)... 2

2B. Not as above... 3

3A. Fruiting body very tough or hard, up to 3 cm thick; flesh inside usually white or pallid; surface often minutely warted or cracked... Xylaria polymorpha & others, p. 886

Fig. 2 Inside flesh (white part) of a dead man's finger
fruiting body

Fig. 3 An example of how tall a fruiting body
of a Dead Man's Finger is






Links
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/xylaria_polymorpha.html
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/apr2000.html
http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/deadmansfingers.htm
http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/club%20and%20coral/species%20pages/Xylaria%20polymorpha.htm