Dead Man’s Fingers Fungus Creeps Us Out in Connecticut

Have you ever walked past a zombie digging itself out of the ground? Probably not, but you sure as hell thought you were if you've ever seen a patch of Xylaria polymorpha. It's a fungus better known as Dead Man's Fingers, and someone found some in Winsted over the weekend.

Dead Man's Fingers is the name given to Xylaria polymorpha, it's a mushroom-like fungal growth that can be found growing on the wood of dead trees and shrubs where it contacts the soil. The fungus grows in the shape of  inch-long fingers, with dark bluish-gray skin, and a small white patch, like a fingernail. I've never seen it, but someone posted a photo of the Dead Man's Fingers that they found on their property in Winsted, and it's haunting me. Here's a video that I found on YouTube that shows a good example.

We've all seen enough episodes of The Walking Dead, or any other zombie movie or tv show, to be paranoid of the zombie apocalypse, right? The homeowner in Winsted that found Dead Man's Fingers on her property was worried because she owns dogs, so she dug them up and flushed them down a toilet. Good place for them, Dead Man's Fingers are not fit for human consumption, they contain levels of amatoxins and phallotoxins which would transform your fingers into true dead fingers, if you ate them. How do you  get rid of them? Cut them away from the wood, and throw them out.