dead man's fingers

noun

• 1a soft coral that has spongy lobes stiffened by calcareous spines. When found washed up on the beach it is said to resemble the fingers of a corpse.

  • Alcyonium digitatum, order Alcyonacea

• 2a fungus that produces clumps of dull black, irregular, fingerlike fruiting bodies at the bases of dead tree stumps in both Eurasia and North America.

  • Xylaria polymorpha, family Xylariaceae, phylum Ascomycota

• 3 informal the fingerlike divisions of a lobster’s or crab’s gills.