Take a long look at this horrifying mushroom.
This is a clathrus archeri fungus, known as the ‘octopus stinkhorn’, ‘phalloid fungus’ and ‘devil’s fingers’, and it has just been spotted growing in the New Forest.
What you can see in the above picture is the egg sac stage, with the
long foul-smelling red fingers of the fungus ready to ooze out from
within.
Most fungi sprout from the earth, but the octopus stinkhorn emerges
from an egg, usually around decaying wood chips, old stumps or in leaf
litter.
Often these slimy, moist, gelatinous eggs are found in clusters. These eggs are around 4-6cm high and 2-4cm wide
The mushrooms are native to New Zealand and Australia and made their
way over to Europe in 1914, believed to have been introduced first to
France through military supplies during the start of the First World
War.
It was found in Penzance in Cornwall shortly after that, and then in
parts of Sussex. Since then it has been found in Bedfordshire,
Hampshire, Kent, Suffolk, Surrey and the Channel Islands.
As the mushroom matures, four tentacle-like fingers burst out of the sac, growing to around 5-10cm in length
Read more:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/22/this-alien-mushroom-is-like-something-from-a-horror-movie-and-its-in-britain-5578984/#ixzz3v3V9lfMC
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