Sometimes the best Halloween decorations come straight from nature: intricate spider webs, giant pumpkins, and fungi that might stop you in your tracks. Commonly known as Dead Man’s Fingers, Xylaria polymorpha They can look like rotting zombie fingers, and similar creepy looking fungi belong to the X genus.Ilaria You can find it all across America.
“This may give the wrong impression that a body has emerged from the fallen leaves, Xylaria “Fungi are associated with wood,” says the West Virginia University mycologist. Matt Cusson tell Popular Science“They’re saprobes, which means they live off dead matter, and that dead matter, that substrate, happens to be wood.”
Dead man’s fingers are often found at the base of decaying or dead trees, where they break down dead wood and release nutrients into the soil for new plant growth. The black finger-like structures are the fungus’ sexual reproductive organs. Sexual spores are produced in small flask-like structures within each finger.
[Related: Why ladybugs and ‘Halloween beetles’ are everywhere right now.]
“Think of a pore and a blackhead on your skin. If you squeeze the blackhead, you get what’s basically a gob of exudate,” says Casson. “It looks like dead man’s fingers. All of this black tissue is covered in flask-like fruiting bodies called perithecia.”
Xylaria They are highly opportunistic and may release spores over a period of months or even years. Hard appearance, Like real fingers. Other fungi, such as mushrooms, are shorter-lived and more prone to falling over. Xylaria Their toughness allows them to continue releasing spores, increasing their chances of reproduction, and allows them to create thin, thread-like structures called hyphae that grow through dead or dying wood rather than sprouting from the trunk of the tree.
Several species are known to cause black root rot, but this is usually a problem that occurs in trees and shrubs that are already under stress. According to the University of Wisconsin-MadisonThe disease affects apple, crabapple, pear, cherry, plum, American elm, Norway maple, honey locust and other trees.
“A lot of fungi take advantage of plants that are already weak and stressed, so maybe the plants have been drought stressed or they’re predisposed by aging, meaning the plants are quite old and at the end of their lifespan,” Casson says, “so you see a lot of fungi like Dead Man’s Finger popping up.”
[Related: Nightmare-fuel fungi exist in real life.]
It’s also important to remember that, like the zombies themselves, the fingers are just the tip of the iceberg and will continue to grow as long as the right conditions are there. Armillaria Ostoyae(also known as megafungi) It is considered to be the largest living organism in the world.. Giant Fungus of Eastern Oregon The fungus has covered over three square miles and the trees are estimated to be between 1,900 and 8,650 years old, so simply plucking a dead person’s fingers from the base of the tree won’t get rid of the fungus itself.
“Fungi are, in a sense, immortal,” says Casson. “If they’re growing at the base of a tree, the tree will eventually run out of resources, but if they’re in a forest where they can spread their spores, they can live forever.”
