Pipe Club

Appearance

It generally grows to about 15cm high although it can be taller or shorter depending on the situation. It can be very slender looking almost like a leaf stalk but usually has a radius of half to one centimetre.
Simple, unbranched clubs, often appearing singly but sometimes in small tufts, when they look like worms trying to become airborne, Pipe Clubs are soft and so flexible that in open locations they can be seen waving in even the gentlest of breezes.

Naming

(Holmsk.) R.H. Petersen
The generic name Typhula comes from Latin and means slightly smokey. Much more obvious, and again from Latin, is the specific epithet fistulosa, which simply means shaped like a pipe or a tube.

Distribution

Fairly common throughout Britain and Ireland, Typhula fistulosa is one of those easily missed fungi, because its light brown stems look very much like twigs or young shoots yet to burst into leaf. This club fungus is found in most countries in mainland Europe, and it is reported also from parts of North America.

Behavior

Appears mostly in the late autumn.
The Pipe Club is a saprotrophic or ‘recycler’ fungus, which is breaks down dead plant material.

Habitat

On fallen twigs and litter in deciduous woodland. It particularly likes beech but can also be found under birch and other broadleaved trees.