Xylaria Polymorpha "Dead Man's Fingers"

@cryptomushii

Sometimes called "dead man's fingers," this odd mushroom dons a couple of costumes in its rather long life span. When young it is pale (often bluish), with a whitish tip; the pale covering is a coating of asexual spores produced in this early stage of development. Morel hunters frequently encounter Xylaria polymorpha in this form, in early spring. By summer, however, the mushroom begins to blacken, and by late summer or fall it reaches maturity, when pimple-like, sexual, spore-producing perithecia are embedded just below the now dark brown to black surface. Somewhere in the middle of this progressive costume change, Xylaria polymorpha does indeed look like a creepy set of "dead man's fingers."