Candlesnuff Fungus

Xylaria hypoxylon – Inedible

Forests, parks, gardens, on rotten deciduous wood. Autumn, spring.

Perithecial stromata small, 3–5 (8) cm tall and 5 pm thick, cylindrical when young, later irregularly contorted, blackish-brown, black when old, widened in the upper part, branched like deer antlers, with pointed tips whitened by conidia. Stem woody, hard, black, rough. Flesh tough, hard, without any particular smell or taste. Characteristic features: spores black, half the size of those of Dead Man's Fingers. Grows in small groups and tufts. Very common, much more common than Dead Man's Fingers. An active saprotroph.