Dead man's fingers or Candlesnuff fungus

There's no cap. The fruit body is shaped like a finger, club, spindle or tuber, often flattened, lobed, bent or fused, 3 to 8 cm tall, occasionally 10 cm, and 1 to 3 cm thick, with a rounded tip. It grows in tufts of three to six.

Young ones are greyish or pale brown, dusted with a pale powder of asexual spores, often with a paler tip. Mature ones are dark brown to black, dry and finely granular or wrinkled from the spore flasks under the surface.

There's no cap. The fruit body, or stroma, is upright, cylindrical or flattened, often twisted, 3 to 5 cm tall, occasionally 8 cm, and 2 to 8 mm thick. It can be a simple spike, but it's usually forked at the top like antlers.

The lower part is black and finely velvety. In autumn the upper part is white or greyish, dusted with asexual spores. As the sexual spores ripen, the whole stroma turns black and tiny bumps with pores appear on the upper part.

There are no gills or pores. The spores ripen in tiny flasks (perithecia) sunk under the black crust, each opening by a tiny pore. When cut, they show as a row of black dots.

The spore print is black.

There are no gills or pores. The spores ripen in tiny chambers just below the surface of the upper part of the stroma.

The spore print is black.

There's no true stem: the finger narrows below into a short, black, finely downy base attached to wood, which is often buried in the soil.

There's no separate stem: the black, velvety base of the stroma runs into the forked upper part.

The flesh is snow-white, hard and fibrous, under a thin black crust, with a row of black dots just beneath the crust.

The flesh is thin, tough, springy and whitish. The stroma bends or snaps but is never jelly-like or slimy.

There's no distinctive smell.

The smell isn't distinctive.