Today’s Story from the Museum Floor by Bryony from the Visitor Team takes a closer look at one of the most unusual objects from our botany collection.

And for more about plants, have a look at the Curator’s blog, Herbology Manchester.

Cordyceps, the Zombie Fungus

It’s Hallowe’en again, and you all know what that means… it’s our Stories from the Museum Floor Hallowe’en blog post, of course!

There are plenty of spooky things to write about in a museum. You might recall our post about the Death’s Head hawk moth, or perhaps the one about ancient Egyptian mummies … but would you expect to find … zombies?

Yes, we’ve got some real-life zombie specimens here in the museum. Now, brace yourselves, because this could get scary …

Cordyceps fungus on caterpillars, Nature’s Library, Manchester Museum. Cordyceps militaris is on the left, and Ophiocordyceps robertsii, right.

Don’t know…