Mother Earth’s beauties always amaze us, as seen by the gorgeous enormous bats and the menacing “snakes” lurking in trees. The magnificent 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 strolling around Western North Carolina. She documented the odd scene when asked to go outside with her camera. 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 polymorph).
These weird mushrooms appropriately get their name by resembling a person who has been buried and is desperately attempting 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 stands out and is distinctive in appearance, it is 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 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 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,” the finder said, adding, “The walk is nice [and] it’s next to the French Broad River, so there’s a lot of good scenery.”
Even though Reagan’s discovery was made in a well-known location, her examples appeared astoundingly well-preserved. This makes sense, given that few people would dare choose these mushrooms because they think they would be hazardous or deadly.
The Dead Man’s Fingers fungus’s creepy appearance likely 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.
