This Is Not What You Think It Is,

if you thought it was a staged photograph,

it is untouched and natural, photograph by Susanta Nanda/Twitter, believe it or not, this picture shared online by Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda isn’t taken out of a horror movie, nor is it showing the toes of an actual zombie or a real-life White Walker what you’re looking at isn’t an animal but a fungus aptly named “Dad Man’s Fingers”, Xylaria polymorpha, commonly known as Dead Man’s Fingers, is a type of fungus that, like its name suggests, looks a lot like the grey fingers of a dead person. It’s true that in this particular case the fungus actually passed as human toes, commonly found in forest and woodland areas, this eerie-looking fungus grows from the bases of rotting or injured tree stumps and decaying wood and takes its common name from its elongated upright stromata poking from the ground like fingers. However, despite its morbid appearance, this fungus is innocuous to humans, while Xylaria polymorpha is indigenous to the regions of Nepal, Bhutan and Northeastern India, they are fairly common in the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe and parts of North America and can be found in regions of the United States, including the Rocky Mountains, interestingly, its color varies from white to blue and black throughout its life cycle. The fingers are white at first, then turn pale blue as they grow, and finally turn black before drying up, believe it or not, although not technically edible, blue Dead Man’s Fingers are cooked and eaten in parts of China, as a wood decaying fungus, Dead Man’s Fingers also has a practical use in the making of violins, according to James Murray, they are used to increase the acoustic properties of wood used to make violins. The wood’s density is decreased by controlling the degree of decay, before the fungus is killed with ethylene oxide to prevent further wood rot, I wonder who found that out? but in any event they still look creepy to me!