I found this in the yard this weekend and thought it looked very peculiar and couldn't figure what in the heck it was. Well, on my weekly browse through Tom Volk's Fungi website, http://tomvolkfungi.net/ I thought I found what it was. The first picture is what I found and the second picture is from Tom's website.
Ok, so we (I) rushed outside to see if what I'd seen was still there and it was! It was a bonfide "Dog Stinkhorn" fungi! I was sure of it. Josh is skeptical at this point and tells me it looks an awful lot like a pepper. But NO! This was no pepper! I had done my research! This was Mutinus caninus! As we poked and prodded, though...I, too, started to think it looked an awful lot like a pepper. But....what in the heck was a pepper doing in our front yard?? Then we saw it...and my dreams were crushed...there were pepper seeds inside. Oh poo--I guess I'll have to hunt for fungi elsewhere.
This morning I've looked into the dog stinkhorn a little more and found that what we had doesn't look similar to it after all. See below:
I wish we HAD found a dog stinkhorn though because they look kinda funny! Very similar to a....a...well...ahem, anyway...so that's where they got their name from. Yes, I see now.
This whole episode has inspired me to be a fungi hunter. We have had such an exciting time with our new bark mulch and all the rain. Apparently fungi LOVES bark mulch and for awhile now we've been amazed at what keeps popping up. I don't have anything as exciting as my pepperus orangus fungi as of late so in the mean time we'll keep an eye out and a camera ready!
***Have a Wonderful Weekend!***
1 comment:
They are stinky!! ha ha! I've gotten a few of those too, and they scared the living daylights out of me! I thought it was a snake!!
Keep those gorgeous pictures coming!
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