1) Bleeding: they ooze a red liquid.
2) Tooth: they grow little 4 mm teeth on their underside.
3) Fungus: it's a mushroom.
You really can't ask for a more appropriate name. I probably should have saved this post for Halloween, but I couldn't resist.
Thanks for the photos, Kelly. I feel a little bit sick now--my world just got a bit more disgusting.
They look like mishapen jelly donuts or coffee cakes gone horribly wrong. I bet they are poisonous...what do you think the 'blood' tastes like? : p
ReplyDeleteSherry/SofN
I wanna see what they look like underneath, but I can't seem to find a photo of that view anywhere online.
ReplyDeleteI think you listed more than two characteristics, sir. Unless you're blending some of them together.
ReplyDeleteHere's a picture with the teeth. It also says they taste peppery, so someone's eaten them and lived to tell the tale. Saw another page that claimed the ooze is used to dye wool, and yet another that called this monstrosity "Strawberries and Cream."
ReplyDeleteNow this is disgusting. Wombat, you have outdone yourself.
ReplyDeleteew ew ew. the bottom part looks like the rumen lining in a cow.
ReplyDeleteaaaand... I've officially been squicked by UO. It apparently took oozing fungus to do it. Eurgh.
ReplyDeleteToo bad these aren't more well-known...I bet with a little ingenuity and jelly beans and such, you could make cupcakes that look just like this!
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to know is WHY it exudes bloody-like droplets. What's the benefit.
ReplyDeleteI also have to say that if I found one of these grossities under a tree, I would have to stick my finger into a droplet (actually my tongue to see if the droplet does taste peppery but even writing that kind of grosses me out).
Wow. If these were a horror movie special effect, I'd say that they were going over-the-top into ridiculousness. Truth is stranger than fiction, every time.
ReplyDeleteNormally, when I look at your site, I think to myself how creepy and cool the pictures are. This fungus just makes me SICK though. blech. Looking at it is enough to make me want to vomit.
ReplyDeleteYuck, thanks for the gross post!
:)
I donno, all that shiny red fluid and that bright pink of it...kinda looks like something out of a bad shojou series.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if these remind me of bloody chunks of flesh (yuck!) or a punctured jelly donut (Yum!)
ReplyDeleteEither way, it is amazing stuff like this even exists.
I actually think they look NUMMY! Not ugly at all. ;) Cool fungus, I do need to see pictures of the "teeth" beneath. ;)
ReplyDeletepkeli said "What I want to know is WHY it exudes bloody-like droplets. What's the benefit."
ReplyDeleteMaybe you really don't want to know why...
Long ago, on a day just like this one, a hiker was hiking through a deep dark forest. Having run out of trailmix, he was feeling a bit peckish when he spied what LOOKED like innocent (though mutated) jelly donuts. "Mmmmmm... cherry filling...", he murmered as he put his finger in a pool of blood red gooey ooze and brought it to his lips."Hmmm...peppery cherry..." but before he could finish his sentence, he collapsed on the side of the trail.
This made the Bleeding Tooth Fungi (which of course is what the helly donuts actually were) very happy. If you were there, with them, in the middle of the dark forest, alone, I'm sure you could have heard them...laughing.. evilly .. as you cringed in disbelief behind a tree and watched the terror unfold....
Hours later, another hiker was hiking through the deep dark forest. He paused as he noticed a huge mound by the side of the trail covered with mutated jelly donuts...strange how it was shaped LIKE A HUMAN CORPSE.
Okay. We now return you to your normal, ugly viewing. Happy Halloween...
Bwabwabwabwa!
Sherry at SofN
ROTF - "Anony" - NICE fire-side scary story version of this fungus' natural history! You made my All Saints Day. ;p
ReplyDeleteSherry--
ReplyDeleteNow I REALLY want to go find some of these. And bring a friend... heh heh heh
Other fungi have droplets too, albeit smaller and less red. In fact quite clear. I've seen them in the forest in Oregon. (can't remember what kind, I'm out of practice) Although, it could have been dew? I dunno.
ReplyDeletemmm... jellied pancakes, just the way nature intended
ReplyDeleteMy little brother had one of those growing out of his ear.
ReplyDeleteso pretty!!!
ReplyDeletei kinda wan to eat it.....
ReplyDeleteIt's not disgusting, looks like marshmallow.
ReplyDelete