Monday 16 June 2008

If you go down to the woods today


I dare you to look at the full size image!

Have we been watching too much Sci Fi ? Is that why we got the feeling that if we leant in too close it would reach up and grab us? Or maybe it did and now we are being controlled and seeking to infect others.

We think it's an Octopus Stinkhorn, a kind of fungus. It was there in all it's gory glory this morning and already by the time this picture was taken something had eaten a bit of this one and the other one a few yards away was gone entirely.

They are supposed to be edible if disagreeable. I think I'll stick to button mushrooms in a plastic punnet thank you.

11 comments:

Kitt said...

Wow, freaky!

If it's disagreeable, why would you want to eat it, anyway? Unless you were lost in the wilderness ...

dND said...

I'd really love to find something like that and have my camera too.

It does look like it should be at the seaside though doesn't it.

Deborah x

Anonymous said...

Oh! A Stinkhorn! We get lots of these, particularly in the veggie garden around Autumn.

I don't know about "edible", but the stink is there to attract Flies to aid with pollination (or is that Sporrulination?)

Moonroot said...

Wow, fabulous! I'm envious of your far-out fungus - I've never seen anything that outlandish in our woods!

Stew said...

Yow!

Breezy said...

Weird freaky it was all those. Of course we didn't have the camera but thought it was worth going back for a photo. This morning there is just about nothing left of it so we were lucky. We managed to identify it by putting Octopus like fungus in Google. Don't you love the internet?

Rowan said...

This is incredible, my first thought was that it looks like a starfish. I've never seen anything like it even in a photograph.
Hope Eddie and Ernie are enjoying liofe.

travelling, but not in love said...

An Octopus Stinkhorn. I'm not at all surprised to hear that the french eat them!

Looks amazing, but I think I'd be more than a bit scared.....

mrsnesbitt said...

I too thought it was a starfish!
Another blog to encourage me to get outside.
Thanks for the push!
Dx

aims said...

I thought it was a starfish that a bird had dropped and it was being eaten by bugs...

How odd! What else have you got in your woods Breezy??

Jen said...

Eurgh. I can't say the first thing I thought of when stumbling up on that hideous beast would be 'dinner'.

Looks like an alien... glad you had your snapper with you - I've never seen anything like that in the plant world before.