Let’s say you’ve gone for a walk in the woods, perhaps you’re a little off-track, maybe you’re mushroom hunting or just passing the time, and then boom: you catch what appears to be a hand clawing its way out of the ground. Real fingers, gnarled and black, cresting through leaf litter — like something out of a terrible nightmare. Your brain immediately switches into horror movie mode. “Oh god. That’s a body.”

No body. You’ve just encountered one of the more bizarre fungal residents of the forest: Dead Man’s Fingers. Continues…