Clathrus archeri, commonly called the devil's fingers or, as the title gave away, octopus stinkhorn. What a great name for this crazy looking fungus.
But first of all, these pictures are from Friday, September 22nd, last year. Today was a rainy day and I didn't take any pictures, and because I briefly thought today was Friday, I dug through my mushroom pictures from last year. Well, today is actually Saturday, so I should have looked for cat pictures, but now it's too late to change plans again. Against all rules, an actifit post with old pictures, for #fungifriday on a Saturday... 🤷 ba-dum
aaaanyways...
The octopus stinkhorn grows from this little brown bulb, within just a few days it will crack open, spread the devil's fingers and immediately rot away into a black goop.
Allegedly it smells very putrid, but I don't remember noticing any kind of stench when I found these last year. Smelly or not, they look amazing, like alien tentacles emerging from the ground.
The mushroom is endemic to Australia and New Zealand but has spread around the entire globe since the 19th century, supposedly through wool exports. At least that's what wikipedia said.
Definitely one of the most crazy looking mushrooms I've seen around here, and I guess it actually is an alien!
And here's a bonus picture of a little brown mushroom growing peculiarly from a circular hole in the wood:
Thanks for your time!
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