Corralitas Drive: That's Not Rotting Meat You Smell, It's My Backyard

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 30, 2012.  A 3" long Stinkhorn Fungus (Lysurus mokusin) brought the faint scent of rotting meat and flies to my backyard.  However, dogs aren't fooled by the stink, just curious about it.  (Click on photos to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 30, 2012.  A few hours later, a second, eventually even larger and more substantial (3.5") Stinkhorn erupted from the earth, about a foot and a half away from the first.   This one really was more alien-like in its sprouting, 6" from the Stinkhorn that came up on Thursday (photo below).  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 26, 2012.  I swear these mushrooms are aliens lying in wait to ambush and replicate humans.  

Click here for all the Stinkhorns found in my yard.

Learn more about Stinkhorns: Mykoweb.  Mykoweb is one of the best resources for California mushroom identification.

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. 

Corralitas Drive: Rain Brings Another Stinkhorn Fungus, Rainfall Totals

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 26, 2012.  An entirely new Stinkhorn Fungus popped up with last night's rain.  I had never seen this 1.25" species in my yard.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

It seems non-native tropical plants can bring Stinkhorns to your yard.  Could it be the unholy love of bamboo the previous owner of this house had?  Learn more about the mushrooms of California on Mykoweb.

We're tracking rainfall totals captured on Corralitas Drive...

April 25-26, 2012: 1.25"

Season to date: 16.25"

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.

Corralitas Drive: Stinkhorn Fungus

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2012.  Investigating the smell of dead animal near my back door, I knew to search for a Stinkhorn Fungus.  Sure enough, one had just popped out of its "egg" (the white casing at the tip).  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Learn more about Stinkhorn Fungus on Mykoweb.   

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.

Corralitas Drive: Like Flies On A Stinkhorn, Stuff You Missed This Year

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 27, 2011.  After I inadvertently kicked and broke a Stinkhorn Fungus, the flies were still swarming to the mushroom masquerading as rotting flesh on a bone.  (Click on photos to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 27, 2011.  The Stinkhorn was so well disguised as a bone, it even had hollow chambers for marrow.

We're reviewing 2011 photos you missed out on, because we simply didn't have a chance to run them all when they were timely.

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.

Corralitas Drive: Giant Slug Eating Stinkhorn Fungus

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 6, 2011, 11:16 PM. Just when you thought things in my backyard couldn't get any more gross this week. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: Stinkhorn Fungus

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 6, 2011. Stinkhorn Fungus looks and smells like rotting meat, attracting flies for pollination. It sprang up overnight. At first, I thought it was a bone sticking out of the brick patio. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 6, 2011. By 1 PM the fungus had dried up. Read more about the variety of Stinkhorn Fungi on MushroomExpert.com and Wikipedia. (Click on photo to enlarge.)