Stem: black and short.
Flesh: white, fibrous and tough.
Plate 69. Cup-fungi allies
![[Larger illustration]](#467779198995390083_illo205lg.png.id-4661992173401660808.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Crust: black, thin, pimply with the protruding tips of the perithecia, and sometimes irregularly furrowed.
Spores: very long, fusiform with one flattened side, black and 20-32 × 5-9 µm in size; eight contained in an elongate cylindrical ascus.
Habitat & Distribution: Common either solitary or in clusters on dead stumps or on buried wood, especially that of beech. This fungus may be found throughout the year.
Xylosphaera hypoxylon Dumortier Stag’s horn fungus
Fruit-body: width 4-8 mm; length 25-60 mm.