The Morning I Found “The Devil’s Fingers” Growing in My Backyard

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.

Those “fingers” are covered in a foul, slimy coating known as gleba, which emits a powerful stench of decay. It’s nature’s way of luring flies and other insects. The insects come, attracted by the smell of carrion, and carry the mushroom’s spores away—helping it reproduce.

That’s right: the smell is intentional. The fungus mimics the odor of rotting flesh to trick the very creatures that help it survive.

What a grotesque kind of genius nature can have.

The Reactions of Those Who See It

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