No One's Gluing Cigarettes onto Trees

Camillea leprieurii can be found in the rain forests of South America, where it lives its microscopic life in dormancy within living trees. It's a fungus which does not harm the tree it lives in, rather, it waits until it dies and recycles it, making use of the nutrients in its rotting wood. That's when its fruiting body, which looks like a cigarette bud or a nail, starts to grow.

Actually, it seems that all Camillea species are cyllindrical in shape. C. leprieurii, and probably also its congenerics and many other fungi, prefers old-growth forests, and although it is currently widespread, as old-growth forests disappear, we could see fewer of these interesting structures in the future.