The entire plant is highly toxic, and chomping its berries can cause cardiac arrest and death. But if you come across it, don’t be tempted to pop an “eye” in your mouth. This plant, also called white baneberry, grows in the eastern United States. The goo contains antibacterial compounds, but no one knows exactly why. This tooth fungus excretes red liquid much like sap in a process called guttation, when the fungus absorbs extra water from wet soil. Instead of using feathery gills under a cap, like a Portobello mushroom, tooth fungi grow their spores on tiny tooth-shaped structures. While they may occasionally look like big, bloody molars, tooth fungi got that name from the way they grow spores. It’s not toxic, but you won't want to eat a bowl of it-by any name, this fungus has a bad, bitter taste. This fungus also has a more benign name: strawberries and cream. “They’re hoping flies will come flying over and wade around in the slimy stuff and carry their spores off.” If their offspring are lucky, she says, the flies will land on a nice stick, providing food for the next generation of festering fungi. “They’re not trying to look like people’s fingers,” Hodge says. When it’s time to reproduce, they grow into the spectacular fingerlike mushrooms and begin oozing slime that smells like rotting flesh-which is filled with the mushroom’s spores. The fungi spend much of their time underground, eating bits of wood. Octopus StinkhornĪlso known as devil’s fingers, these mushrooms burst out of thin, leathery “eggs” to reveal bright-red tentacles covered in patches of greenish-black slime. Nature is full of these creepy wonders, and we’ve rounded up some of the most fascinating examples. Others are harmless to humans and simply evolved to look (and sometimes smell) ominous to take advantage of unique ecological resources. The white baneberry plant takes the concept of creepy dolls to a new level.
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