FungiFriday: Stinkdomes
I was really surprised when this beauty popped up in my back yard, I have only ever seen a Stinkhorn once and that was under some trees. These are a little different to the stinkhorns we usually see, they don't have the usual red slimy patches and this type of stinkhorns is called a cage stinkhorn. As you can see, it has many satisfied customers crawling all over it: the spores are spread by ants and flies.
Clathrus Traansvaalensis was only described as a species in 1990 so it is relatively rare to find. It didn't smell too bad, it smelled kind of mushroomy rather than rotten. When it first emerges, it is enclosed in a papery capsule and looks like an egg. I missed this part but you can see a remnant of the capsule on the top.
Bonus find: an indigenous snail - I often find the shells but finding one with it's funky yellow resident isn't common and it's the reason why I don't use snail-bait in my garden, much as I would like to. This little cutie does no harm to plants.
The next day: picked clean and dried out although it still attracted the odd hopeful fly.
My contribution to #FungiFriday, an initiative by @ewkaw
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STOPHere is one in my yard from last August ... Gone in one day ...
Oh my! That is so awesome! Never seen one like it.
And they do stink...
That's a cutie, Mike
Yes right out of the text book. Didn't know what is was, had to look it up. :-
@manorvillemike, very intresting one; it never happened in my life (yet)
They do stink ... :-)
Latin name is Mutinus caninus
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An interesting mushroom. Probably growing only in Africa. I have not seen these.
The cage-shaped ones are found elsewhere in the world
Resembles an octopus stinkhorn, these have some interesting members in their family, some with intricate netting.
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This is a very generous mushroom!
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Just from the photo it looks like it should be stinky! Funny how that seems ingrained in many of us. Mostly grew up with the "Common Stinkhorn" in Europe, and those things were nasty! Interesting, to be sure.. but what a smell!
=^..^=
Perhaps I have just smelled worse....
I am really jealous you have such stuff at your backyard!
altho, it stinks. I know that. still!
They didn't smell much and since I keep stinky flowers for fun, it doesn't bother me at all
what I have heard, you can locate them in the forest from 3-5m, for their smell. no? maybe, they smell less in the dry / sunken environment, like yours...
The ones with the shiny red starfish shapes smell bad, this one definitely attracted flies but was kind of like an old underwear smell. I have flowers that smell much worse, like dead mice