Mother Earth’s beauties never cease to amaze us, as seen by the gorgeous enormous bats and the menacing “snakes” lurking in trees. A magnificent set of pictures that North Carolina native Regan Daniels uploaded on the Mushroomcore Facebook page quickly went viral. The images revealed an intriguing discovery that Regan Daniels made in June 2020 while taking a stroll around Western North Carolina. When she was asked to go outside with her camera, she did so to document the odd scene. She later showed the Mushroomcore group the pictures.
Regan’s image stood out to the 30,000-member Mushroomcore group because they were accustomed to seeing gorgeous images of forests and fascinating details. So what was the subject of their discussion? Regan’s image showed the fungus Dead Man’s Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha). These weird mushrooms appropriately get their name by resembling a person who has been buried and is making a desperate attempt to rise from the forest floor with their swollen, darker “fingers” stretching skyward.
Said Regan, “Saw this Dead Man’s Fingers (or toes, in this case) fungus that I literally thought was a Halloween decoration!” in her blog. Although this fungus clearly stands out and is distinctive in appearance, it is actually very common and is present all year. These mushrooms are widely distributed throughout the world but are particularly common in Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, and many regions of North America. So, with a good eye, it’s not impossible to spot these swollen, wart-covered “fingers”.
They should be sought out on broadleaved tree stumps or rotting wood, especially beech trees. Dead Man’s Fingers are a fungus that only develops on dead or dying wood, which explains why they frequently appear through layers of moss and decomposing leaves.
According to First Nature, the fungus Xylaria polymorpha is frequently not considered to be palatable. Regan Daniels accidentally came across these sinister-looking mushroom clusters while visiting a park in North Carolina. When they erupted from a stump, a number of more mushrooms of the same kind joined these horrifying creations. Despite some reviewers rejecting the images as false since they believed they were impractical, it’s important to emphasize that these mushrooms are real. The variety of interesting photographs that may be found online further supports these rare species.
“I found the mushroom in Western North Carolina in the United States at a park that I frequent,” Regan told Bored Panda. “The walk is nice [and] it’s next to the French Broad River so there’s a lot of good scenery.”
Despite the fact that Reagan’s discovery was made in a well-known location, the examples she discovered appeared to be astoundingly well-preserved. This makes sense given that few people would dare choose these mushrooms because they think they would be hazardous or deadly. It’s likely that the Dead Man’s Fingers fungus’s creepy appearance makes people hesitant to handle or eat it. These unique instances thus typically go unrecognized, allowing them to maintain their pure status in the wild.
