Names, authorship and dates from Index Fungorum.

• AscomycotaPhylum
• └─ SordariomycetesClass
• └─ XylarialesOrder
• └─ XylariaceaeFamily
• └─ XylariaGenus

Higher ranks from Catalogue of Life (COL26.9 XR).

not recorded

Saprobic on dead and decaying stumps and logs of broadleaves, especially beech; also on buried wood

⚠ Before you pickWild fungi may be taken in small quantities for your own use (§39(3) BNatSchG) — but not in nature reserves or national parks, on closed land or on farmland in use, and never for sale (§39(4)). In Bavaria this right is anchored in Art. 141(3) of the state constitution and is limited to locally customary amounts; the competent authority is the district nature-conservation authority (untere Naturschutzbehörde). Local signs and ordinances come first.

Species protection from BArtSchV Annex 1 and §2(1), retrieved 2026-10-15; Red List from Dämmrich et al. (2016) (BfN / Rote-Liste-Zentrum). Not legal advice — local rules and signage may be stricter. BArtSchV Annex 1 · Red List data

not recorded

Inedible — too small and tough to be of any culinary value

• ▸ Antler- or club-shaped, flattened, often branched fruit bodies like a tiny stag's horn
• ▸ Black, carbonaceous surface with powdery whitish-grey tips while young
• ▸ The pale tips darken as the sexual fruit bodies mature
• ▸ Grows in dense tufts on dead hardwood stumps and logs

One of the most common decomposers of hardwood; the pale 'snuff' on the tips is the asexual conidial stage, which turns to sooty black as the perithecia mature.