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Xylaria hypoxylon

 
Xylaria hypoxylon, commonly called either the Candle-snuff Fungus or the Stag's Horn Fungus, appears throughout the year, but it is particularly common during late autumn and winter.

Identification guide

Description

Small, upright fruit bodies, usually in masses. Some are simple spikes, but most branch like antlers.

Initially black and finely downy near the sterile base, and white towards the spore-bearing tips, the whole of the fruit body eventually blackens.

This is one of the last fungi to attack rotting wood, and is often preceded by a succession of other species such as Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea) and Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare).

Dimensions

Base 2 to 8 mm in diameter; fruit body typically 3 to 5 cm tall.

Spore print

Black.

Odour/taste

Not distinctive.

Habitat

On fallen branches and rotting stumps of broad-leaf trees; very occasionally on pine stumps.

Season

Autumn and winter.

Occurrence

Frequent.

Similar species

  1. Xylaria carpophyla is similar but much more slender; it grows on rotting beach mast and is often buried in leaf litter.
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