Corralitas Drive: Stinkhorn City **Updated

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011, 8:03 AM.  That's no Easter egg, but yet another species of Stinkhorn Fungus sprouting near the site in my yard of the earlier Stinkhorn Fungus.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011, 12:16 PM.  By midday what appears to be a Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)** developed slime and began attracting flies. By this morning, it smelled as if something had died.  The smell was so bad, we couldn't open the windows on that side of the house.  A few hours later the smell had dissipated and the fungus began to droop. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2011.  Easter was Stinkhorn day.  Another Stinkhorn, like the first we saw a few weeks ago, had already gone flat by midday.  Look closely and see the fly feeding on the red portion of the fungus.

Be sure to check out the Stinkhorm Hall of Fame on www.MushroomExpert.com.

**UPDATE: April 30, 2012: Special thanks to Michael Wood of Mykoweb for identifying the Stinkhorn in the first two photos as Phallus hadraini.  "Your Phallus impudicus may actually be Phallus hadriani…I’ve seen no record of P. impudicus in California. The obvious difference is that the “egg” is pinkish to lilac in P. hadriani."  

Disclaimer: The Corralitas Red Car Property Blog prefers to quote reliable sources, such as Calflora and California Poison Control, on the issue of toxicity. We often get email suggesting some plants are edible. If you are eating your way through the Red Car Property, we DO NOT recommend you eat any plant you find in the Red Car Property neighborhood without first doing your own research.