From September to November, clusters of red "mushrooms" spring up in the deep forest in some parts of Sichuan province. They look like the combination of snakes' heads and coral reef. They are called balanophora laxiflora, which are often mistakenly recognized as poisonous mushrooms.

In fact, the balanophora laxiflora is not a mushroom, but an herbaceous plant. Its whole body is red. Without chlorophyll, it is unable to photosynthesize and is completely dependent on their hosts for survival. Evergreen broad-leaf forests are its first choice. The Balanophora laxiflora absorbs the hosts’ nutrition by intertwining its own roots with the hosts'.