Dead Man’s Fingers!

The less startling scientific name for Dead Man’s Fingers is Xylaria polymorpha.

Some years ago we had to have a couple of large Silver Maple trees removed…in large part to get better sun for the vegetable beds. We had the stumps left in the ground and they have been decomposing nicely as evidenced by the fungal activity.

Notable among the fungi has been Dead Man’s Fingers.

While this fungus can attack living trees, to their detriment, they are just one of the many fungi that have populated the dirt where the stumps and roots of the Silver Maple are.