I started enjoying fungi when I stopped worrying about if they were edible or not. Now I just enjoy looking at them (and occasionally eating chicken of the woods, the only one I feel confident enough to identity).
This weekend in Pomona I spotted the notoriously NSFW stinkhorn mushroom which I’m pretty sure is Phallus hadriani. It fruits quickly with the tip oozing a slimy substance attractive to insects. I witnessed a pill bug and some gnats circling the morel-like tip. Stinkhorns use these insects to distribute spores. In short, a very cool mushroom in a horror movie kind of way.
So many good mushrooms here (OK) too.
What’s NSFW about it?
It all depends where you work. I have worked in a few places where looking at pictures of Hadrian’s phallus would be considered rather weird. In other places, it would be considered quite normal.
Lol.
Have you seen the “stinky squid” fungus? Also a stinkhorn. It looks like red and black squid tentacles reaching up out of the ground (courtesy of wood chips). It has the added bonus of being offensively smelly! Had a couple in my yard last week but they only last about 48 hours before shrivelling up and disappearing.
Just googled to see a picture of the “stinky squid” and never seen that one around here. Truly amazing, though.
Spotted a cool mushroom this weekend in Pomona! The NSFW stinkhorn, likely Phallus hadriani, caught my eye. It fruits quickly, with a slimy tip that attracts insects to help spread its spores. Saw a pill bug and gnats around it—very horror movie-like!
Cool! And, yeah, sure does fruit quickly. The ones I noticed were dried up and gone the next day.