The Strange Forest Creature That Bursts From an Egg and Sends People Running

After a heavy rain, the forest becomes alive with strange shapes and sounds—but few sights are as startling as the moment someone stumbles upon what looks like an alien egg cracking open in the soil. Smooth, pale, and faintly rubbery, this strange “witch’s egg” often leaves hikers frozen in their tracks, unsure whether they’re witnessing something from nature… or from another world. Inside this eerie pod lies a folded structure waiting to erupt, and within hours, it does—splitting open dramatically as a tall, spongy stalk bursts upward at a speed fast enough to seem unnatural. This is the stinkhorn mushroom, a fungus so bizarre and sudden in its appearance that many consider it one of the most terrifying organisms in the forest.

But the fear doesn’t truly begin until the smell hits. The moment a stinkhorn reaches maturity, it releases an odor so foul—so shockingly similar to rotting flesh—that people often think a dead animal is nearby. This horrific scent is not a flaw but a calculated survival strategy. Unlike most mushrooms that rely on wind, stinkhorns recruit insects to carry their spores. The slimy, dark cap on top of the mushroom is coated in a sticky substance that smells like decay, luring flies and beetles that land on it, feed on it, and unknowingly transport spores across the forest. Nature designed this creature to be repulsive, and in doing so, made it remarkably effective.

Still, beneath the horror-movie theatrics, the stinkhorn serves an important purpose. Living deep in the soil, it breaks down decaying leaves and wood, turning what is dead into nutrients that feed new life. It is a quiet worker in the shadows, an unseen force recycling the forest floor—but its beauty lies in how unapologetically strange it is. From the eerie egg stage to the slimy, pungent stalk that appears almost overnight, the stinkhorn is a reminder that nature is not always gentle or comfortable. Sometimes, it forces us to confront the wildness we forget still exists.

And should you fear it? Not at all. The stinkhorn is not dangerous, not toxic, and not harmful—just undeniably shocking. It frightens because it challenges our expectations, because it grows too fast, looks too strange, and smells too wrong. Yet in its unsettling design lies a fascinating, intricate strategy woven into the fabric of the forest itself. The stinkhorn may be called one of “nature’s most terrifying things,” but it is also one of its most extraordinary.