Mushroom "fingers of the devil": a description of where growing and interesting facts

It happens that the nature of his pantry suddenly opens up, and the light of God appears incredible, even eerie plants, of which very few people know. For some of them you do not need to climb high mountains or dive into the depths of the sea. Even the mushrooms are mysterious and unusual. Most people, when mentioning them, represent a boron, in which a mushroom or mushroom flaunts on a thick leg among the foliage. But the mushroom kingdom is huge and diverse: from microscopic to huge specimens.

However, among them there are especially unusual ones. In this sense Russian forests are quite harmless. We can meet ordinary mushrooms, edible and inedible. But if it happens to be in the tropical forest, you can meet something that is also called mushrooms, but it causes a single desire - to run away.

What is it about? Almost shots of their "Aliens"

And you do not believe in your eyes anymore, because everything that is happening seems like a movie from science fiction. Here just on the ground lay a tuber, a bit like a potato, and a moment later the red fleshy tentacles, released from it, are laid on the grass. And all the time it seems that these lovely limbs will now grab you. The spectacle, frankly, terrible.

But there is no need to worry. Because this terrible creature is actually an earth mushroom. It is in this way that the Archer flower-tail (Clathrus archeri) of the genus Grizzler of the Veselkovye family - the fungus "the fingers of the devil" appears. Who would have thought that his appearance so does not fit his name.

And yet it's a mushroom!

Anthuras Archer has a lot of names, but the most popular among them is "the fingers of the devil." These are the same tentacles of red hues, on which, like suckers from octopus tentacles, there are black spheres (hence the other name is "mushroom-octopus"). These black balls - gleba, emitting a rotten smell of rotten meat.

The old mushroom "fingers of the devil" is even more terrible. His bright color disappears, and there remains a monstrous pale hand, as if he had come out of the grave. The aroma that it emits is akin to the smell of rotting flesh. They attracted to them insects that scatter fungus spores over long distances.

Where did this creepy mushroom come from?

How and where did the spooky mushroom "the fingers of the devil" settle? Where does it grow? It was first described in Tasmania and very soon found in Australia, followed by New Zealand, Africa, the Center and Southeast Asia, South America, St. Helena and Mauritius.

Europe considers him an alien. No one knows the exact time of his introduction here. It is supposed that he was accidentally brought to France somewhere from 1914 to 1920 from Australia, and possibly from New Zealand, along with the wool supplied for the needs of the textile industry. Or maybe his arguments came here with Australian soldiers, participants in military operations on French territory during the First World War. Even if it was imported accidentally, it was acclimatized quite successfully. That's how amazing the Australian mushrooms "the devil's fingers" look.

And here is the result for you

Since the mid-30's, terrible finds have been found in Europe. They are concentrated mainly in the mountains of Vosges in the east of France, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, crossed them and spread further: in Germany (in 1937), Switzerland (in 1942), England (in 1945), Austria (In 1948), the Czech Republic (in 1963). After some 60 years, the mushroom has already mastered the Baltic coast. It happens pretty quickly. "Fingers of the devil", the most spooky mushroom in the world, is met more and more often from Spain in the west to Ukraine and Poland in the east, from Scandinavia and Great Britain in the north to the Balkan countries in the south.

The first discovery in the territory of the former Soviet Union was noted in Kazakhstan (Aktyubinsk Oblast) in 1953, the next in the Ukrainian Carpathians in 1977. This tropical predator is met, although very rarely, in Russia. It is not excluded that he was brought here with soil and seedlings, but in some parts of the southern and central regions he successfully consolidated. So, isolated cases, when Anturus Archer caught the attention of mushroom pickers, were noted in Sverdlovskaya (1978) and Kaluga oblasts (2000s).

The fungus "fingers of the devil" is accustomed to dwelling among mixed and deciduous forests, where it successfully thrives on humus soils and rotting wood among the desert sands and semi-deserts. It starts to blossom from August to the end of October. There is a rare fungus, but it can grow in considerable quantities, if weather conditions allow.

Mushroom "fingers of the devil": description

Anturus Archer's fungus can even be called tricky. And all because at first he pretends to be a whitish grebe, the most ordinary and unremarkable. This concerns the stage when it is in the form of an egg 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter. When the mushrooms are scattered in the forest, you can think about them all, even take for an alien creature.

But in fact the egg has a multilayer structure:

• Peridium - the top layer;
• Mucous membrane, which in composition resembles jelly;
• A nucleus that consists of a recipe (what will become red petals) and in the center of the glebe (the spore layer).

But time passes and they begin to blossom. The spectacle is not less eerie, when from the burst shell of the egg literally erupt up to eight petals. Initially, they fused at the top, but soon they split very quickly and resemble blades or even tentacles like the octopus.

By the way, the metaphor "helicopter" would have been more successful. Can you imagine an octopus traveling from one continent to another, as did Anturus Archer in the last hundred years? In the end, the fungus acquires a characteristic shape of a star or flower about 15 centimeters in diameter. And inside the petals resemble a wrinkled porous sponge, by the way, quite brittle, with dark spots, like the octopus suckers. They are covered with spore-bearing mucous gleba, which is precisely the source of intolerable stench. But she attracts flies successfully. And already insects spread on their paws the controversy of this monster in the district. Of course, to dispel the dispute is chosen not the most common among the other mushrooms way, but it is certainly effective.

Interesting mushroom "fingers of the devil" does not have an obvious leg. And coming out of an egg, he lives only two or three days, after which he withers and dies. But this short period is enough to fulfill its function - the transfer of the seed, so that the genus can continue.

Mushroom "fingers of the devil" - edible or not?

Indeed, an interesting question. So is it possible to eat a miraculous creation of the "fingers of the devil"? You can eat mushrooms! Even there was only a daredevil in California, who took a sample in the egg stage. His taste was, to put it mildly, very unpleasant, and the sensations after such a tasting are not the best, but memorable.

If you are in conditions of survival, for example, in the desert, and there is no other food, then eat it. Do not die of hunger! In all other cases, consider it inedible.

Almost relatives

With all the uniqueness and dissimilarity to other forest dwellers, there are species quite similar and similar:

• Tsvetokhvostik Javanese (Pseudocolus fusiformis syn. Anthurus javanicus). You can meet him in the forests of Primorsky Krai. Visit the Nikitsky Botanical Garden (perhaps somewhere else) and find it in some tub, where one of the tropical plants is planted. It differs from Archer with petals, converging at the top.
• Red Grid (Clathrus ruber). This fungus is very rare.
• Ordinary witcher (Hallus Impudicus). In the state of the egg there is a considerable similarity. It differs from the "fingers" only in the color on the cut, in the veselka it is green.

The life of the "fingers of the devil" on the World Wide Web

Anturus Archer's fungus, or "the fingers of the devil," is so unusual that anyone who meets him, wants to capture such a wonderful sight. And the Internet is literally filled with a variety of photos of this seemingly monster, but in reality it's just a mushroom in all stages of its short life: from eggs scattered over the green forest, to the pale, almost white "dead man's hand" lying on the ground, as if breaking through the grave Earth thickness.

The first appearance of his pictures on the Internet caused serious disputes among users of the World Wide Web. Assumptions were expressed very different: that the creature is of extraterrestrial origin, and the photo depicts the eggs in which the embryo-parasite develops, or that this is the most common photomontage, and no reality.

Different "faces" of Anturus Archer

Those who look at this marvelous earthly face a variety of associations. Someone sees it as a cactus, someone - cuttlefish, for someone it resembles a star or a flower, and someone immediately comes to mind octopus tentacles.

Hence the numerous and so different names by which he is called:

• "Fingers of the devil"
• "Fucking fingers"
• "Fucking egg"
• "Star Mushroom",
• "The stinking horn of an octopus"
• "Fungus-cuttlefish",
• "Stinking horn.

Anturus Archer (Clathrus archeri) - etymology

Clathrus in translation means "bolt, lock" or "vault, cage". The word archeri originated from the name of the Irish mycologist W. Archer.

Notes on the journey of a monster across Europe

• Ukraine. Anturus Archer is listed in the Red Book as an endangered species. As it has been customary since 1977, reports of a meeting with him come today from the Transcarpathian, less often Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Almost all the finds are recorded in the forest zone, on mountain slopes at an altitude of up to 800 meters above sea level.
• Germany. Anturus Archer's fungus, or the "fingers of the devil", is found here quite often, since in 1937 it was first discovered. And yet he is listed in the Red Book.

• The Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary Region. Near the town of Hranice in a small protected area are hidden rare species of plants and animals. And although the average annual temperature is only about 6 ° C, this did not prevent the creation of the tropics of Anthurus Archer from settling in these parts. And rotting wood for him for food and growth is quite enough.
• United Kingdom. Here the mushroom "fingers of the devil" (Anturus Archer) - a rare find. And the only kind with which it can be confused is Clathrus ruber. But there is a certainty that the consequence of global warming may be its wider spread. One can be sure that he will not remain unnoticed long. A guarantee of this is its terrible appearance and a hideous smell.

By the way, Anturus Archer's fungus, or "the fingers of the devil", was described in 1860 by the British mycologist Michael Joseph Berkeley and gave him the name Lysurus archeri. Later this wonderful fungus was referred to the genus Clathrus by another British Donald Malcolm Dring in his monograph (1980). This creation of nature began to be called Anthurus Archer, but the most popular among the people is the name "fingers of the devil".