Stinky!

Part of the fun of living where we do and maintaining our yard as natural habitat is the interesting things we discover about the place.

This is one such thing.

A stinkhorn mushroom. A fast growing fungi that literally pops up overnight.

Ravenel's Stinkhorn, Phallus ravenelii, to be specific.

Rather distinctive in appearance and thus one of the few easy to identify fungi.

Similar to birds nest fungi in that respect. And in that it also fruits on rotted wood.

But significantly larger and much more popular with insects. The American Carrion Beetle shown above is larger than the entire birds nest fungi fruiting body.

The carrion beetles were there because the flies were there, as the beetles dine on fly larvae. Yummy!

Analogous to flower pollination, albeit with a rather different bouquet, the flies and other insects spread the mushroom's spores. The scent attracts the insects who walk on the sticky stinky goo picking up spores in the process. Some dine on the smelly secretions ingesting and then pooping out spores. Yummy!

We'll need to keep a weather eye (nose?) for more stinkyshrooms next fall. We've plenty of rooting wood in the forest the makes up and surrounds our place.

Keep looking down!