Fairy fingers (Clavaria fragilis), Frick Park, 22 Aug 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

24 August 2026

Sometimes fungi catch my eye. In Frick Park on Saturday we found small ghostly, upright fingers emerging from the leaf litter.

These are fairy fingers or white worm coral (Clavaria fragilis), a fungus that according to Wikipedia grows in moist soil in woodlands or grasslands on rotting fallen leaf litter and dead grass stems. It feeds on dead organic matter by excreting a chemical to digest it.

The “fingers” are the fruiting bodies that usually appear in clusters. People rarely notice them when the come up singly.

Fairy fingers at Frick Park, 22 Aug 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

Fairy fingers have a wide range throughout the Northern Hemisphere as well as in Australia and South Africa. It seems this fungus is edible …

Clavaria fragilis is nonpoisonous and reportedly edible raw or cooked, but the fruit bodies are insubstantial and fragile. One field guide says “its flesh is tasteless and so delicate that it seems to dissolve in one’s mouth.” Its odor has been compared to iodine.

… but not worth eating.

Fairy fingers? Devil’s dipstick? What next?