Dead Man’s Fingers

Now this looks like something you’d find in a horror movie. Imagine wandering through a forest filled with deciduous trees and stumbling upon this nightmare. Most people’s first instinct would be to scream and run in the other direction! It looks like an old, decaying hand is clawing it’s way out of the ground. In fact, it’s actually a type of fungus. This is xylaria polymorpha, which is colloquially known as dead man’s fingers. This fungus often grows around dead or rotting trees and is found in many forests across North America, Britain, and Ireland.