'Dead Man's Fingers' Bizarre Fungus Found in North Alabama

Imagine that you're walking down your favorite trail on a beautiful day in north Alabama. As you enter an especially dark area of the forest and walk past an old, rotten log, something catches your attention. You stop, take a few steps back, and slowly lean over to get a better look. That's when you see it. Reaching forth, out of the cold, damp earth, you see what looks like the blackened fingers on the hand of a rotting corpse. Do you run? Call the cops? Suddenly need a change of underwear? Actually, you can count yourself lucky. You've just seen a fungus known as "dead man's fingers." Believe it or not, it grows in north Alabama - and we have photos to prove it!

"Dead Man's Fingers" FungusPhoto byPosted by Diylanonreddit to Reddit

The scientific name of the fungus is Xylaria polymorpha. It's classified as a saprotrophic fungus, which means it feeds on and grows on dead or decaying organic matter, mostly dead trees. It can also grow on lumber or mulch if the conditions are right. The part of the fungus that sprouts upward and looks like fingers is the fruiting body of the fungus. These appear sometime in spring to mid-summer in clusters of 3 to 6, adding to their finger-like appearance. Blooms that release spores on the tips of the "fingers" can even look like fingernails! Check out the photo below posted to Instagram by Amanda (@mushroomhunter)!

Dead man's fingers fungusPhoto byAmanda (@mushroomhunter on Instagram)

The little-known fungus soared in popularity a couple of years ago, when a photo posted on the internet by Regan Daniels of North Carolina went viral (see the photo below). In this photo, the fungus looks arguably more like a dead man's toes than fingers! Maybe even bigfoot toes! Although the photo looks like a photoshopped image or AI, it's actually very real—the fungus just happened to grow between two rotten logs, which gave it the creepy appearance of a monstrous hidden foot.

Dead Man's Fingers (fungus)Photo byRegan Daniels

Dead man's fingers is a fungus that can be found all around the world - even in north Alabama. The fungus is most likely to be seen growing in shady hardwood forests. If you look for the fungus in Alabama, look carefully - it's easy to miss. The color of the fungus as it grows in the southern United States is usually more of a dull dark brown than the powdery charcoal color seen in many of the viral photos on the internet. In fact, it's easy to mistake the fungus for something that looks like what a cat leaves in the litter box! Take a look at the photo below, and you'll understand what I mean. It was taken at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve in Colbert County and posted to Instagram by the Land Trust of North Alabama.

Xylaria polymorpha at Cane Creek Nature Preserve, AlabamaPhoto byNorth Alabama Land Trust (Instagram)

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