Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
ArticleBody:The best Halloween decorations sometimes come directly from nature. Intricate spider webs, enormous pumpkins, and a fungus that might stop you dead in your tracks. Commonly called dead man’s fingers, Xylaria polymorpha can look like decaying zombie fingers. This and other similar sinister-looking fungi in the genus Xylaria can be found throughout the United States.
Matt Kasson. Dead man’s fingers are typically seen at the bottom of decaying or dead trees, where they are breaking down the deceased wood and releasing nutrients into the soil so that new plants can grow. The black, finger-like shapes themselves are the fungi’s sexual reproductive structures. Sexual spores are produced inside tiny flask-like structures inside of each finger. “Think about the pores on our skin and blackheads.
Matt Kasson. Some species are known to cause black root rot, but that is typically a problem on trees or shrubs that were already stressed. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this disease is found on trees including apple, crabapple, pear, cherry, plum, American elm, Norway maple, and honeylocust. “A lot of fungi just kind of take advantage of already weakened and stressed plants.
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