I didn’t dare touch it, but curiosity overpowered disgust. Holding my breath, I crouched down and snapped a picture with my phone. The smell was unbearable—I had to step back before my stomach turned.
Once inside, I searched online for “red slimy mushroom that smells like rotting meat.”
The creature in my yard wasn’t a dying animal or something alien. It was something called Anthurus archeri, better known as the Devil’s Fingers.
A Horrifying Beauty of Nature
According to what I found, this strange organism isn’t a creature at all—it’s a fungus. Originally native to Australia and Tasmania, the Devil’s Fingers has spread to Europe, the Americas, and beyond.
It begins life innocently enough, as a small, white, egg-like shape hidden beneath the soil. Then, one day, it bursts open—quite literally—and from it emerge bright red tentacles that unfurl like claws or fingers reaching out from the earth.
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