Devil's Fingers Fungus is Super Gross, Yet Oddly Mesmerizing

The Devil's Fingers fungus is one mushroom you won't want on your pizza. If the looks don't get you, the smell of rotting flesh will.

The Devil's Fingers fungus is a mushroom that is also known as the Octopus Stinkhorn. It is indigenous to New Zealand and Australia.

That probably doesn't come as a surprise, since this area of the world is known for nature's oddities.

While this species is native to the Land Down Under, it has been introduced through spore-spread to Europe, North America, India, and South America.

The Octopus Stinkhorn is a member of a larger group of stinkhorns that develop similarly throughout the environment. According to Wikipedia, they all tend to start as "fruit bodies [that] originate as a gelatinous, spherical, or egg-shaped structure that may be completely or partially buried underground."

The Octopus Stinkhorn starts as an egg-looking plant that lives underground until it's time to reproduce. That's when the nasty Devil's Fingers begin to sprout and grow.

It ends up producing a fly-attracting spore that smells like rotting, putrid flesh.

Makes you want lunch, doesn't it?

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