Continued Blessings of the Basidiomycetes

Geez! My friend's husband found a FOURTH stinkhorn (my other posts are here and here) in the mulch in their front yard. The mulch in question gets some water from their neighbor's yard, and I assume that this moisture helps. This morning's stinkhorn was very "fresh" -- bright pink and it had white stuff on top (how phallic is that!?). They seem to be fairly ephemeral -- their turgidness and smell don't last long.

According to MushroomExpert.com, "Traditionally, two families of stinkhorns were recognized. The Phallaceae held stinkhorns with unbranched stems, including species of Mutinus, Phallus, and Dictyophora (now synonymized with Phallus), among others. The Clathraceae included stinkhorns with branched stems and those with funky, latticed structures--including Clathrus, Lysurus, Colus, Laterna, and others." The Mushroom Expert also says, "In some parts of the world--not my part, mind you--stinkhorn eggs are considered delicacies, and are eaten with relish (the emotional kind). To my knowledge, no stinkhorn is known to be poisonous--and I have heard from several morel hunters who actually cooked and enjoyed mature stinkhorns, thinking they were July morels. But I do not recommend you eat them--mostly because the idea seems too disgusting, but also because, given the spore-dispersal strategy outlined above, a mature, slime-covered stinkhorn may be unsanitary. A further consideration may be the various chemicals often associated with urban soil and woodchips."

On a side note, doe-c-doe provided this nice embroidery pattern (scroll down to the end of her post) that includes mushrooms, a snail, insects, and plants.

Ta ta for now,
Sylvie