A woman was stunned to find a 'zombie-like' mushroom while on a walk that left fungi fans stumped.
Abbie Dobbs came across the mysterious find in Bradfield Woods, Suffolk last month and noticed it appeared to resemble a face.
The bizarre-looking mushroom has two large holes, which viewers have compared to eyes, and a gaping "mouth" with spikes inside that resemble teeth.
Abbie said: "It’s a screaming mush-strosity!”
She shared the picture of it on Facebook and it has since gone viral with more than 4,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
One person said: “Holy cow that’s straight out of a nightmare!”
Another user added: "It’s deadly looking."
“I’m pretty sure if you eat that it starts the zombie apocalypse,” commented another viewer.
Someone else said: “More like mushroom found in my nightmares.”
Another viewer said: “I would eat them before they try to eat you. Better yet, leave them in the forest and never look back.”
One helpful viewer said they shared the image in t "mushroom spotting" Facebook group and they speculated on what it could be.
They wrote: "It’s a mushroom called Amanita Rubescens, aka The Blusher, that has been munched on to show the gills inside.
"I asked on the Mushroom spotting page!"
The Blusher is typically seen between May and November and can be eaten once cooked, according to Wild Food UK.
The foraging site does warn that the Blusher looks similar to the deadly Panther Cap, Amanita pantherina.
The site reads: "The main difference is that the Blusher has lines or striations on its skirt running from the stem out, the Panther Cap skirt is smooth.
"Other differences are the Blusher has a lighter cap, the scales on the cap are off-white to grey rather than white, the Blusher stem is bulbous at the bottom the panther cap growing from a volvic sack and has a rim or ‘gutter’ at the top of the volva and finally, the Blusher ‘blushes’ red when damaged or exposed to air."
