You might mistake these for frost, or tiny matchsticks pushed into the moss — but they’re fungi, not plants. Candlesnuff Fungus, 𝑋𝑦𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎 ℎ𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑥𝑦𝑙𝑜𝑛, lives quietly on fallen wood, breaking it down from within. Each one stands only a few centimetres tall, black at the base and dusted white at the tip with spores. In the right light they seem to glow, which has earned them a fair few ghostly nicknames over the centuries.
Their English name comes from the image of a candle just snuffed out, the wick still smoking. The French and Dutch names, Xylaire and Geweizwam respectively, recall wood and antlers, and both suit them rather well. They appear through autumn into winter, small sentinels of decay and renewal, returning tree to soil.
Xylaire comes from the Greek root xýlon (ξύλον) meaning “wood”, and that’s also where the Latinised genus name Xylaria comes from and the Latin suffix -aria means “connected with” or “pertaining to”.
The species name hypoxylon adds more detail: from hypo “beneath” and xylon “wood”, roughly translating as “beneath the wood” reflecting its habit of fruiting from the inner wood tissue as it decays.
In other words the whole name Xylaria hypoxylon means “the wood-dweller from beneath the wood.”
If you find them, look closely. They are the forest’s smallest chandeliers, lit only by daylight.