Mother Nature is both terrifying and amazing. That's why the majority of things that go bump in the night and UFO sightings can be put down to perfectly logical explanations. But there's no doubt that if you saw this particular fungus on a socially distanced walk, you'd be forgiven for getting yourself into something of a panic. If this puts you off the natural world, why not be like this bride and display donuts instead of flowers [[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/nCMRGdPF-dkXnENEs.mp4||nCMRGdPF]] Ladies, gentlemen, and others, let me present to you 'dead man's fingers' - a fungus that got its namesake because that's exactly what it looks like. Taking to the Facebook group Mushroomcore, a person named Regan Daniels wrote: "Saw this Dead Man's Fingers (or toes in this case) Fungus that I literally thought was a Halloween decoration!" [[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/groups/540157200026292/permalink/567933810581964/]] Mushroomcore is a 29.5K strong group of people interested in all things nature and fungi. In an interview with <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/dead-mans-fingers-fungus-xylaria-polymorpha/?cexp_id=30413&cexp_var=15&_f=featured">Bored Panda</a>, Regan said of her find: "I found the mushroom in Western North Carolina in the United States at a park that I frequent. "The walk is nice [and] it's next to the French Broad River so there's a lot of good scenery." [[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3757205144294637&set=gm.567933810581964]] Regan found the dead man's fingers fungus on a stump where it was surrounded by similar fungi and completely different species. Despite being in a popular location, the fungus is completely intact, and we can see why! It's not something anyone in their right mind would go near unless they confidently knew what it was. However, this is far from the only fungi in existence that would make most people stop dead in their tracks. Case in point, this jelly ear fungus that was posted to <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/foi5n6/this_bothers_me_in_so_many_levels/">Reddit</a>. <img class="wp-image-12602996" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/07/97c5d78e-screen-shot-2020-07-09-at-14.15.13.png" alt="Jelly ear fungus." width="600" height="599" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Reddit / teacher400]] However, back to the dead man's fingers, this is what some of the dumbstruck members of Mushroomcore had to say about it. One Facebook user who looked on the bright side joked: "At least it has a decent pedicure going on." <img class="wp-image-12602997" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/07/2706abea-screen-shot-2020-07-09-at-14.18.39.png" alt="A Facebook comment." width="646" height="192" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Casey Jones]] A second joked: "Pick it up and brew it into a soup!" <img class="wp-image-12602998" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/07/6765a8e1-screen-shot-2020-07-09-at-14.21.20.png" alt="A Facebook comment." width="648" height="192" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Facebook / Moira Dahlia Casil]] Whereas a third Facebook user had arguably the most understandable reaction and wrote: "Ngl I'd have a heart attack if i stumbled upon this irl." <img class="wp-image-12603002" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/07/3040dee0-screen-shot-2020-07-09-at-14.28.58.png" alt="A Facebook comment." width="677" height="208" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Facebook / Annie Bee]] Meanwhile, in other fungus news, <a href="https://vt.co/lifestyle/health/gruesome-video-shows-dozens-of-mushrooms-growing-in-womans-ear">this gruesome video shows dozens of "mushrooms" growing in a woman's ear</a>.

This terrifying fungus is called 'dead man's fingers' and it's easy to see why

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