Devil's fingers!

Following a tip off I had the pleasure of photographing these spectacular fungi today.
The Octopus stinkhorn AKA Devil's fingers Clathrus archeri is a rare alien species introduced to the UK from New Zealand. The red tentacles are pitted and covered with slime (or gleba) which contains the spores. This gleba smells of rotting flesh (really very strongly if you are close!) which attracts flies, (see extra) beetles and other insects which crawl over it and disperse the spores. This obviously works well as it can be found over quite a large area.