Home • Xylaria hypoxylon OSC100004 v1.0
Stagshorn or Candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) among moss,
Hesse, Germany. <a
href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:NorbertNagel">Norbert
Nagel</a>
Stagshorn or Candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) among moss, Hesse, Germany. Norbert Nagel

Xylaria hypoxylon (L.) Grev. is an ascomycete fungus that is classified in the family Xylariaceae (Xylariales, Sordariomycetes). It fruits from downed wood forming a stipitate, branched or club-like stroma. Early in development the stroma produces asexual, white spores that are powdery and wind-dispersed, giving its common name “candlesnuff”. Later the stroma develops black to darkly pigmented perithecia that give the stroma a roughed or bumpy appearance. Perithecia are the products of sexual reproduction and contain asci and ascospores, which are forcibly ejected and wind-dispersed. X. hypoxylon is a wood decay fungus that results in a white-rot form of wood decay that has independently evolved relative to the white-rot of basidiomycetes. Species of Xylaria are also frequently isolated as endophytes of plants. Sequencing of the X. hypoxylon genome will advance the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project by providing a representative genome of Xylariaceae and advancing our understanding of the evolution of wood decay among ascomycetes.