Dead man fingers

Dead man fingers
(Maple) woodcut mushroom
Never seen before this yet common fungus.
The upright, club-shaped fruit body has a length of three to eight centimeters and a diameter of one to three centimeters. The dark brown to black color and the warty structure on the upper side show the external similarities with burnt wood. The fungus owes its generic polymorpha ('many forms') to the fact that there are many different fruiting bodies, often with multiple branches. Usually, fruit bodies are group-wise, the species owes its name to 'dead man's hand' or 'dead man's fingers'.