Number 1 - Devil's fingers The most terrifying fungus out there! The devil's fingers fungus hatches from a slimy, gelatinous 'egg'. As it grows, the tentacle-like arms start to protrude...
Capable of causing severe infections, it's also tricky to identify and known for causing hospital outbreaks — and some strains are resistant to every available drug. "There are over 700,000 species of fungi, and many of them have everything that they need in order to successfully kill a human being," said Dr.
The Cordyceps mushroom can infect ants and turn them into zombies! Once infected with Cordyceps spores, ants become brainwashed and disorientated. The fungus then compels the ant to leave the safety of the nest and ascend to a nearby stem (the perfect place to grow a fungus).
Hebeloma aminophilum, commonly known as the ghoul fungus, is a species of mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. Found in Western Australia, it gets its common name from the propensity of the fruiting bodies to spring out of decomposing animal remains.
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, otherwise known as cordyceps or zombie-ant fungus, infects insects such as ants or spiders. Like other parasites, cordyceps drains its host completely of nutrients before filling its body with spores that will let the fungus reproduce.
Octopus Stinkhorn (Clathrus archeri)
With large red tentacles oozing sticky black slime, the reproductive structure of the Octopus Stinkhorn bears a striking resemblance to the Demogorgon from Stranger Things. This fungal monster hatches from an egg that grows amongst leaf litter and wood-chip mulch.
The fungi featured in this photo gallery include the beautiful Stinkhorn Fungus, Phallus multicolor, the weird and wonderful Crab Pot Fungus, Colus pusillus, and the red Starfish Fungus Aseroe rubra. Each of these emits an unpleasant odour that attracts flies that spread their minute spores.
What Is the Rarest Mushroom? The yartsa gunbu also wins the prize for rarest mushroom. It's not just that these mushrooms are only found in the wild growing out of caterpillars.
Death caps are native to Europe, but they're now considered an invasive species, found on every continent except Antarctica. Their caps, which range from 1.5 to 6 inches wide, can be greenish yellow, brown, tan and, in rare cases, white. The mushrooms' most fatal component is the toxin alpha-amanitin.
Molds is an umbrella term for all species of microscopic fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments (which give mold its “furry look”), called hyphae. Molds thrive on any organic matter, including clothing, leather, paper, food and the ceilings, walls and floors of homes with moisture management problems.
Harmful Fungi
Five species of molds - aspergillus, fusarium, lomentospora, scedosporium and mucormycetes - have been identified as “killers of humans”.
Antifungal drugs treat fungal infections by killing or stopping the growth of dangerous fungi in the body. Fungi can develop resistance to antifungal drugs the same way bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics.
Yes.
The fungus from The Last of Us is based on a real fungus that exists in nature today and is called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, or cordyceps. Cordyceps is often referred to as the “zombie-ant fungus” because it primarily infects ants and other insects such as spiders.
While scientists aren't worried that a fungal infection like the one seen in HBO's “The Last of Us” will wipe out humanity, the infections are certainly a cause for concern.
In covid-19 patients who also had fungal infections, the two most common fungal pathogens were Aspergillus, involved in 27.8% of cases, and Candida, involved in 21.5%.
One species of fungi, Schizophyllum commune, really shines when it comes to gender diversity. The white, fan-shaped mushroom has more than 23,000 different sexual identities, a result of widespread differentiation in the genetic locations that govern its sexual behavior.
Nicknamed the “mushroom of immortality” in English, Ganoderma mushrooms are known as “reishi” in Japanese and as “lingzhi” in Chinese. Ganoderma is a group of fungi that break down wood or cause white rot on certain tree species in the environment. Humans use Ganoderma fungi to treat anything from the flu to cancer.
The fossils were discovered in billion-year-old rock, and the presence of chitin in the specimens further persuaded the researchers that they were preserved fungi that died a billion years ago. The team named the fungus Ourasphaira giraldae.
The most common cause of poisonings due to ingestion in Australia is Agaricus xanthodermus – Yellow-staining mushroom. Less common but more dangerous is the Death Cap, Amanita phalloides, which has led to several fatalities in Melbourne and Canberra.
Scientific name: Clathrus archeri. This smelly, strange looking fungus is also referred to as octopus stinkhorn or octopus fungus. Its eye-catching red tentacles splay out like a starfish.
Common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)
It's scientific name literally means 'shameless phallus' – Phallus relating to its phallic appearance and impudicus translating to 'immodest' or 'shameless'. It even emerges from a bulbous sack. If that wasn't enough, the common stinkhorn smells unmistakably like rotting flesh.
It's SpongeBob SquarePants—sort of. The little yellow cartoon with the square brown bottoms loaned his name to a new mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, discovered in 2010 in Borneo by researchers from San Francisco State University (SFSU) and profiled in the May 2011 Mycologia.
Death Angel mushrooms are of the genus Amanita. Common species are Amanita virosa, Amanita bisporigera, Amanita ocreata, Amanita verna, and Amanita smithiana. Amanita phalloides, the deadly Death Cap, is a related type of mushroom. Amanita mushrooms are responsible for most deaths caused by mushroom poisoning.
Tremella encephala is a species of fungus producing pink, brain-like, gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies). It is widespread in north temperate regions and is parasitic on another species of fungus (Stereum sanguinolentum), that grows on dead attached and recently fallen branches of conifers.