SpongeBob SquarePants Mushroom
Photo: Tom Burns, UC Berkeley
Scientists found a new species of fungus that "lives in the rain forest, under a tree" and looks just like a sea sponge, so naturally they named it after SpongeBob SquarePants:
Shaped like a sea sponge, the bright orange (and sometimes purple) mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo in 2010, and just described in May in the journal Mycologia.
The fungus has a particular odor, smelling "vaguely fruity or strongly musty," according to Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University.
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Neat Facts About SpongeBob SquarePants
