Devil's fingers are an unusual but edible mushroom. Mushroom "fingers of the devil": a description of where it grows and interesting facts The life of the "fingers of the devil" on the World Wide Web

The natural world is full of unexpected surprises, and when it seems to you that you know everything about the world around you, be sure - this is a delusion. So, for example, we are used to the fact that a mushroom looks like a hat on a long (or not so) stalk. But the diverse xylaria mushroom will radically change your idea of ​​these organisms, surprise and even, perhaps, scare a little.

It's all about the unusual appearance of these mushrooms, which are also called Dead Man's Fingers. And these organisms fully justify their name, since they are very easy to confuse with the ossified fingers of a deceased person. Xylaria multiforme can be found on stumps and rotten wood from late spring to late autumn, and especially at the beginning of its development has an elongated dark green leg 3 to 10 centimeters long with a rounded light brown tip, which really does look very much like human fingers. However, despite their intimidating appearance, Dead Man's Fingers has not gained any intimidating fame, and even vice versa. Although these mushrooms are not suitable for eating due to their strong rigidity and lack of any taste, certain hopes are placed on them in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and HIV, since through many scientific research it has been proven that the bioactive substance contained in the pulp of xylaria prevents the reproduction of the immunodeficiency virus and cancer cells.

Vaulted star (lat. )

It seems as if Mother Earth decided to create a mushroom in the image and likeness of man. The vaulted asterisk really resembles a human figure. Also, this mushroom looks like a domed earth star. Therefore, among the people, in English-speaking countries, they call it that. The second version of the name is an acrobatic earth star.

It reaches a height of 4-8 cm. It is usually found singly or in small groups in forests. North America and Europe, mainly in Mexico and the southwestern United States of America. If you find this mushroom, you should know that it is inedible.

Trembling brain (lat. ) - forest brain

In a cut.

Striped goblet (lat. ) - a small bird's nest with miniature eggs

What tiny bird found this nest and laid her eggs in it? Calm down: this is not at all the work of the wings of a miniature bird. This is about beautiful mushroom a striped goblet, or, as it is also called, a striped cyatus. You can find these in summer and autumn on dead wood in areas with temperate climate all over the planet: in Asia, in Europe, in North, Central and South America, in New Zealand. The color and size of the striped goblets may vary slightly, but, as a rule, they are no more than 1 cm in width and height. Cyatus striped has a gray or brown color. By the way, in scientific literature the tiny "eggs" are called peridioles.

Auricularia ear-shaped (lat. ) - the forest hears everything

Ears in the middle of the forest? It looks like a David Lynch movie. But it can actually happen to you. You can even eat them if you like. In fact, these are mushrooms called auricularia auricularis. Their size varies from 3 to 12 cm. You can meet these reddish-brown "ears" in wet places, mainly on dead deciduous trees and shrubs. mushrooms grow all year round however, they are most often found in autumn. They are widely distributed in temperate and subtropical climates throughout the world.

Mushroom auricularia auricularis in Asia, especially China, is considered delicacy. It is specially grown on dead wood, for example, wood of cork oak, elderberry, banana of paradise. Being in Chinese People's Republic, You can try the Chinese Black Mushroom Soup, a must-have ingredient of which the aforementioned mushroom. Auricularia auricularis is also used for making salads. In China, Ghana, Nigeria, it is believed that dishes from these mushrooms are medicinal. In particular, the Chinese believe that soup with "ears" helps in the fight against colds and fevers.

Anthurus archer (lat. Clathrus archeri) - devil's fingers, octopus or starfish?

When the Anthurus archer mushroom opens, outwardly it resembles starfish or an octopus. Usually has 4 to 7 pinkish-red "tentacles". Popularly known as the fingers of the devil, the scariest mushroom in the world. It is easy to recognize not only by appearance, but also by a terrible unpleasant smell they fell. The scent attracts flies, which spread the spores. Anthurus archer grows in groups, often among wood chips, old stumps and stale foliage. It originally grew in Australia and Tasmania, but now it can be found in Europe, North America, and Asia. Do not try this mushroom open, it is inedible.

Undisclosed.

Gidnellum pitcha (lat. ) - "bleeding" mushroom

If you walk through the forests of North America and some European countries, You may find a fungus with a frightening folk name, bloody tooth or devil tooth. Although there are people who look at it from a culinary point of view. To them, the mushroom resembles ice cream with strawberry syrup.

Only young wet mushrooms can “bleed” with a bright red liquid. Interestingly, the liquid contains an effective anticoagulant. While young, the hindellum pitcha is easy to identify, but as it ages, the fungus becomes brown and inconspicuous. "Bleeding" mushroom inedible although it is not toxic. It is extremely bitter in taste. Mushroom sizes range from 5 to 10 cm in height. Gindellum pitcha grows on the ground under coniferous trees, often among mosses. Between the roots of some trees and these mushrooms are established mutually beneficial relationship exchange of useful substances takes place.

- dead man's fingers

When this mushroom is encountered on the way, it seems that the dead man tried to get out of his grave with his own hands. But again we are talking about mushrooms, the popular name of which dead man's fingers. inedible mushrooms Xylaria polymorpha appear in the spring, most often on damaged stumps or rotten wood. At first they are bluish or bluish, then, by the summer, the mushrooms gradually acquire an ominous look for the human eye. Polymorpha means "many forms". As the name suggests, the form of Xylaria polymorpha fungi is very diverse. But in most cases, the shape is club-shaped, that is, thickened at one end.

young mushrooms.

mature black mushrooms.

in a cut.

Horror! Spilled zombie fingers.

How do you like the selection? unusual mushrooms? Which one surprised you the most? Share your opinion on social networks!

• Department: Ascomycota (Ascomycetes)
• Subdivision: Pezizomycotina (Pezizomycotins)
• Class: Sordariomycetes (Sordariomycetes)
• Subclass: Xylariomycetidae (Xylariomycetes)
• Order: Xylariales (Xylariae)
• Family: Xylariaceae (Xylariaceae)
• Genus: Xylaria (Xylaria)
• View: Xylaria polymorpha (Xylaria diverse)

Synonyms:

• Dead Man's Fingers

• Xylaria multiforme
• Xylaria polymorpha
• Sphaeria polymorpha
• Hypoxylon polymorphum
• Xylosphaera polymorpha
• Hypoxylon var. polymorphum

This strange fungus, often referred to as "Dead Man's Fingers", can be found from spring to late autumn because it develops very slowly. Young - pale, bluish, often with a whitish tip. Its pale outer covering is "asexual" spores, conidia, appearing on early stage development. By summer, however, the fungus begins to turn black, and by the end of summer or autumn it is completely black and withered. Somewhere in the middle of this transformation process, Xylaria multiforme really looks like "dead man's fingers" terribly sticking out of the ground. However, in the final stages, most likely, it looks like a "gift" left by a house cat.

Xylaria polymorpha is the most common of large species Xylaria, but the species name, "Dead Man's Fingers", is often applied in a broad sense, encompassing several species that are differentiated by microscopic characters.

Description

Ecology: saprophyte on decaying deciduous stumps and logs, usually at the base of the tree or very close, but sometimes it can grow as if from the ground - in fact, there are always buried remains of wood in the ground. Can grow singly, but is more common in clusters. Causes soft rot of wood.

fruiting body: 3-10 cm in height and up to 2.5 cm in diameter. Rigid, dense. More or less like a club or finger, but sometimes flattened, may be branched. Usually with a rounded tip. Covered with pale bluish, grey-bluish, or purple dust of conidia (asexual spores) when young, except for a whitish tip, but becomes blackish with a pale tip as it matures, and eventually completely black. The surface becomes thinly dried and wrinkled, an opening is formed in the upper part through which mature spores are ejected.

pulp b: white, whitish, very hard.

Microscopic characteristics: spores 20-31 x 5-10 µm smooth, fusiform; with straight germinal slits extending from 1/2 to 2/3 of the length of the spores.

Season and distribution

Widely distributed throughout the planet. Usually grows in groups, preferring to live on rotten wood and stumps deciduous trees, chooses oaks, beeches, elms, can grow on conifers. Sometimes found on the trunks of weakened and damaged living trees. From spring to frost, ripened fruiting bodies do not collapse for a long time.

Edibility

Inedible. There is no data on toxicity.

Similar species

(Xylaria longipes) is much rarer and has thinner, more graceful fruiting bodies, but a microscope will be needed for final identification.

Other information about the mushroom

Possesses medicinal properties. IN traditional medicine in some countries it is used as a diuretic and as a drug to increase lactation.

It happens that nature suddenly opens its pantries, and incredible, even creepy plants, which few people know about, appear in the light of day. For some of them you don’t need to climb at all. high mountains or sink into the depths of the sea. Even mushrooms themselves are mysterious and unusual. Most people, at the mention of them, imagine a forest, in which a boletus or a mushroom flaunts on a thick leg among the foliage. But the mushroom kingdom is huge and diverse, from microscopic to huge specimens.

However, some of them are especially unusual. Russian forests in this sense are quite harmless. Here you can find ordinary mushrooms, edible and inedible. But if you happen to be in a tropical forest, you can meet something that is also called mushrooms, but causes the only desire - to run away.

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

And you can’t believe your eyes anymore, because everything that happens seems like a science fiction video. Just now, a tuber, a bit like a potato, lay on the ground, and a moment later, red fleshy tentacles released from it fit on the grass. And all the time it seems that these cute limbs are about to grab you. The spectacle, frankly, is terrible.

But there is no need to worry. Because it scary creature is actually a terrestrial fungus. It is in this way that Archer's flower tail (Clathrus archeri) from the genus Lattice of the Vesyolkovye family, the "devil's fingers" mushroom, is born. Who would have thought that appearance its so not true to its name.

And still

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

The aged devil's fingers mushroom is even scarier. His bright coloring disappears, and remains a monstrous pale hand, as if crawling out of the grave. The scent they give off is akin to the smell of rotting flesh. With it, he attracts insects that scatter spores of the fungus over long distances.

Where did this creepy mushroom come from?

How and where did the creepy fungus "devil's fingers" settle? Where does it grow? It was first described in Tasmania and very soon discovered in Australia, and then followed New Zealand, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, South America, and Mauritius.

Europe considers him an alien. No one knows the exact time of bringing it here. It is assumed that he was accidentally brought to France sometime from 1914 to 1920 from Australia, and possibly from New Zealand, along with wool supplied for the needs textile industry. Or maybe his disputes got here with Australian soldiers, participants in hostilities on French territory in the First world war. Even if it was brought by accident, it acclimatized quite successfully. This is how the Australian “devil's fingers” mushrooms look amazing.

And here is the result

Since the mid-30s, terrible finds have been discovered in Europe. They are concentrated mainly in the Vosges mountains in eastern France, practically 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), Czech Republic (in 1963). After some 60 years, the fungus has already mastered the coast of the Baltic. This happens pretty quickly. "Devil's fingers", the most terrible mushroom in the world, are found 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 Balkan countries on South.

The first find on the territory of the former Soviet Union noted in Kazakhstan (Aktobe region) in 1953, the next - in the Ukrainian Carpathians in 1977. This tropical predator is met, though extremely rarely, in Russia. It is possible that it was brought here with soil and seedlings, but in some southern and central regions successfully established. So, isolated cases when Anturus Archer caught the eye of mushroom pickers were noted in Sverdlovsk (1978) and Kaluga regions(2000s).

The devil's fingers mushroom is accustomed to living among mixed and deciduous forests, where it successfully takes root on humus soils and rotting wood among the sands. It begins to bloom from August to the end of October. The mushroom is quite rare, but it can grow in considerable quantities if weather allow.

Mushroom "devil's fingers": description

Mushroom Anthurus Archer can even be called cunning. And all because at first he pretends to be a whitish grebe, the most ordinary and unremarkable. This refers to the stage when it is in the form of an egg from 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter. When mushrooms are scattered throughout the forest, you can think of anything about them, even take them for an alien creature.

But in fact, the egg has a multilayer structure:

• peridium - upper layer;
• mucous membrane, which in composition resembles jelly;
• the core, which consists of a receptacle (what will become red petals) and in the center of the gleba (spore-bearing layer).

But time passes, and they begin to bloom. The spectacle is no less terrible, when up to eight petals literally erupt from a burst egg shell. At first they are fused at the top, but soon they separate very quickly and resemble blades or even tentacles, like an octopus.

By the way, the metaphor "helicopter" would be more successful. Can you imagine an octopus traveling from one continent to another like Archer's Anthurus has done for the last hundred years? In the end, the mushroom is acquired characteristic shape 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 suckers of an octopus. They are covered with spore-bearing mucous gleba, which is precisely the source of the unbearable stench. But it attracts flies successfully. And already the insects carry the spores of this monster around on their paws. Of course, not the most common method among other mushrooms was chosen to disperse spores, but it is certainly effective.

An interesting mushroom "devil's fingers" does not have a clear leg. And after leaving the egg, it lives only two or three days, after which it withers and dies. But this short period is enough for him to fulfill his function - the transfer of the seed, so that the race continues.

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

Indeed, an interesting question. So is it possible to eat the wonderful creation of the “fingers of the devil”? You can eat the mushroom! There was even one daredevil in California who took a sample at the egg stage. Its taste turned out to be, to put it mildly, very unpleasant, and the sensations after such a tasting are not the best, but memorable.

If you find yourself in a survival environment, such as in the desert, and there is no other food, then eat it. Don't die of hunger! In all other cases, consider it inedible.

Almost kindred

With all the originality and dissimilarity to other inhabitants of the forests, there are species that are quite close and similar:

• Javan flowertail (Pseudocolus fusiformis syn. Anthurus javanicus). You can meet him in the forests of Primorsky Krai. Visit (maybe somewhere else) and find it in some tub where one of the tropical plants. Differs from Archera in petals converging at the top.
• (Clathrus ruber). This mushroom is very rare.
• (Hallus Impudicus). There is considerable similarity in the state of the egg. It differs from the "fingers" only in color on the cut, in the veselka it is green.

The Life of the Devil's Fingers on the World Wide Web

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

Different "faces" of Anthurus Archer

Those who look at this marvel of the earth have a variety of associations. Someone sees cacti in it, someone sees it as a cuttlefish, for someone it resembles a star or a flower, and for someone octopus tentacles immediately come to mind.

Hence the numerous and such different names with which he is called:

• "Fingers of the Devil"
• "damn fingers"
• "damn egg"
• "mushroom star"
• "stinking octopus horn"
• "cuttlefish mushroom",
• "Smelly horn.

Anthurus Archer (Clathrus archeri) - etymology

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

Notes on the monster's journey through Europe

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

• Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary region. Near the city of Granice on a small protected area hiding rare species plants and animals. And although mean annual temperature here it is only about 6ºС, this did not prevent the brainchild of the tropics Anthurus Archer from settling in these parts. And rotting wood is enough for him to feed and grow.
• Great Britain. Here the mushroom "fingers of the devil" (Anthurus Archer) is a rare find. And the only species with which it can be confused is Clathrus ruber. But there is confidence that the consequence of global warming may be its wider distribution. You can be sure that he will not go unnoticed for a long time. The guarantee of this is its terrible appearance and disgusting smell.

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