What do you think of this fact?
Picture a walk in the woods in summer. Between the fallen leaves sits a pale, squishy ball only about 2 to 3 centimeters across. A little later, bright red tentacles have burst out of it. They curl backward like a starfish, and the air smells like something died.
That’s not an alien. It’s a fungus called devil’s fingers, Clathrus archeri.
Hatched from a slimy egg
Most of the time, the fungus lives hidden as a network of threads underground. When it’s ready to show itself, it forms an “egg”: a soft, gelatinous ball. Live Science says its skin dents under your finger. According to the New Forest National Park Authority in England, the egg hangs on the underground network by a thick strand and can wait for several weeks until conditions are right.
Then it hatches. The red arms push out, at first joined at the tips. Then they split and arch back into a star. Usually there are at least 3 or 4, sometimes 7 or 8, and Live Science even reports up to 12. The whole thing is only about 5 centimeters high, with arms up to about 7 centimeters long, according to The Wildlife Trusts.
The stink is the whole point
The arms are coated in a slimy layer called the gleba, which holds the spores. It smells like rotting flesh. Mycologists David Arora and William R. Burk described the odor as “like rotting crab,” Live Science reports.
Gross, but clever. The smell attracts flies, and the New Forest authority adds beetles and slugs to the guest list. The slime sticks to them, and they carry the spores off to new places. That trick is unusual for a fungus, and it helped devil’s fingers spread across the New Forest in under 20 years.
Bonus fact: Devil’s fingers isn’t European at all. It comes from Australia and New Zealand, and in parts of the USA it’s called the octopus fungus. It is thought to have reached Europe around 1914, possibly with war supplies or wool.
So if you ever spot a red octopus in the leaf litter, don’t call for help. Just hold your nose.