Xylaria hypoxylon, "Candesnuff Fungus" is probably one of a world-wide group of wood-rotting ascomycetes that look similar. They apparently occur later in the wood-rotting cycle of fungi, and are common on dead wood in moist forests. Fruit bodies to 80 mm high, hairy, roughly cylindrical, club-shaped or flattened, frequently branched. They produce two kinds of spores. The white tips consist of masses of asexual spores (conidia). As the fruiting body matures, it thickens, becomes all black, and sexual (ascospores) are produced in embedded receptacles called perithecia. The latter form tiny pores on the surface of the fruiting body. Ascospore spore print black. Hopetoun Falls, Otway Ranges, 2008.