Country diary: A hellish fungus, foul of stench and spindly of finger | Charlie Elder

Dartmoor, Devon: Of all the British wildlife with ‘devil’ in its name, the devil’s fingers fungus surely earns it the most Follow your nose? It was certainly worth a try. I had been searching the grassy slope for a couple of hours, without luck. Having failed to spot any blood-red amid the green, I hoped a smell might draw me closer. But all I could make out was the aroma of cattle grazing nearby in this still, quiet Dartmoor valley. Two days earlier, a walker had made a rare find while on a navigation course in this area of Merrivale. They had stumbled across a lone devil’s fingers fungus, rising from the earth like a hand emerging from a grave, clawing at the air. An early Halloween treat.