Mushrooms can be a tasty treat to grow in your garden, but there’s one variety you don’t want popping up. It’s called dead man’s finger and it looks something like you’d expect from the name: a slender, tubular spire sprouting from the ground. These aren’t your ordinary fungi, however, and they could spell trouble for your trees and shrubs.
Dead Man’s Finger
Dead man’s finger (Xylaria polymorphia) is a member of the mushroom family and, when growing together in a clump, they can look eerily similar to a hand, like something out of a zombie movie. It is a saprotrophic fungus, meaning it feeds on dead or dying wood. These organisms make a home in an ailing tree or plant and absorb the nutrients released as they break it down.
This mushroom tends to favor apple, maple, beech, locust, and elm trees. They can also be harmful to some shrubs and other ornamental landscape plants. Their appearance does not infect the tree, but is rather a symptom of an underlying problem. This fungus doesn’t like healthy wood, and will instead move in on a plant that is already infected with some other disease.
Dead Man’s Finger & Where You Might Find It
Seen primarily in the spring, dead man’s finger appears pale or blueish at first. As they grow, they darken to grey and black. An infected plant or tree will show signs of poor health before dying. If you see them, first try to find where they are coming from. They often grow in the mulch used to surround landscaping beds. If this is the case, simply removing and replacing the mulch should solve the problem.
If you see these creeping fingers on the trunk of your tree or on the roots, that would indicate a larger problem. This would mean your tree is already suffering some sort of ailment that may not be able to be remedied. Since an infestation of this mushroom can cause something known as soft rot, it could cause your tree to fall over without warning. This is a potentially dangerous situation that means your tree should be removed sooner rather than later. Contact your arborist or local tree trimmer to take care of the problem before dead man’s finger makes a graveyard out of your garden.
Featured Image from bogdan ionescu/Shutter Stock
