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Dead Man's Fingers

Xylaria sp

Photo by Tukup
Published on Project Noah
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-2.15, -77.69

Field Notes

Description:

The tallest of these were 5 cm tall with a short stem and head 3 times longer than the stem. The color is a rich, deep brown. I believe this is a Xylaria. It is very much like Dean Man's Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha), but according to Mushroaming.com (see ref box), that species isn't found in South America. He goes on to say a similar example to this specimen is Xylaria aenea, which is reported from Panama.

Habitat:

These fungi were found in a permanently shaded area of the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador. I spotted them on a large hardwood log lying on the ground in a state of decay (foto #4).

Notes:

This spotting was amazing. On this 2 meter tree trunk I found no less than 4 different fungi, moss, bromeliads and other unidentified plants. I will be posting them as I can come up with an ID or at least a decent description. These are all new areas for me so I hope there will be some help from PN experts in these areas.

Reference Links:

Xylaria - Wikipedia, Amazing Amazon Mushrooms | Mushroaming - Daniel Winkler's Webpages Dedicat…

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)
Tukup
Thanks for the encouraging words Mauna. That's a much better way to look at it rather than being frustrated that I can't identify many of them :-) In the 5,000+ snakes I've handled here, we have expanded the ranges of many as there has been so little done in this area. I also came across 2 examples of what is believed to be a new species. The experts have submitted it for consideration and have proposed naming it after me in recognition of the 25+ years I've worked with them in identifying the herpetofauna of our area. Things like that are pretty cool. I really appreciate your comments, always.
mauna Kunzah
Tukup, I think the coolest possibility when coming across fungi in Ecuador is that you may have found something previously undiscovered (not necessarily this fungus, but in general). It’s also interesting that when you see something, it could be the last time because fungi are so fleeting and there’s so much diversity to tropical wildlife.
Tukup
25+ species huh? Hmm. How many times would I need to flip a coin to decide :-) Thanks Mauna, I appreciate your efforts. Thanks Machi. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with a "sp."
Machi
I think you are correct with Xylaria, but I don't know much beyond that.
mauna Kunzah
Tukup, check out page 205 of this guide and you'll soon see that there are 20+ species of Xylaria in Ecuador alone! Quite a task to identify fungi in tropical regions. http://tropicalfungi.org/wp-content/uploads/32.-Lodge-et-al.-2008-Neotropical-Xylaria-NAF.pdf Also, it seems that someone tried to write a book about Xylaria in the Ecuadorian forests, lol: http://icrowdnewswire.com/2016/06/23/xylaria-cloud-forests-ecuador-fully-illustrated-guide-beautiful-xylaria-fungi-cloud-forests-ecuador-one-biodiverse-places-earth/

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Mushroom Mapping
Mission
Beauty of Decay
Biodiversity of Ecuador (BioBanco)

Tags

Photographed
PublishedApril 10, 2019

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