Mushroom madness continues. It may stink but no one can say it’s not elegant.
Yesterday’s wanderings brought me to my first encounter with an Elegant Stinkhorn.

Elegant Stinkhorn – Mutinus elegans

Actually it was a pair, both had just passed their prime and were laying on the ground. All their essential features remained except for being erect. It stinks bulbous base color bands – white at the base turning pink/red towards the tip green slime on the stalk hole in the tip hollow structure The mushroom’s fetid odor attracts insects like flies that feed on the foul smelling slimy green spore mass. I wonder why my National Audubon field guide is mum about the edibility of this mushroom since it is not poisonous. Other sources state the immature bulb / base is edible although it’s rather tasteless. Another common name for this mushroom is ‘Devil’s Dipstick’. I don’t even want to ask what he’s checking the level of or where he’s sticking it.

finger licking good

The genus name Mutinus refers to a Roman phallic deity so it’s understandable how a very similar looking member of the family got it’s name, The Dog Stinkhorn – Mutinus caninus. Not that I pay attention to such things but it does look like a dog’s thing-a-ma-jig even without a hole at the tip.

…and now for something completely different.

I tweaked my template in order to display wider images used as desktop backgrounds. Now I can use Picasa’s link generator without having to make multiple copies of the same image in different sizes for use on the blog.

The image is linked to the full sized image on my Picasa Wallpaper Album. From there you can browse the rest of images

• Mushrooms
• Comments(6)

6 Responses

1. Becky Says:
   September 15th, 2011 at 1:41 pm

   I’ve never seen this and elegant? stinkhorn, and I think that’s fine with me. I sure hope you washed your hands. Yucch!

   I wondered too where elegant came from but I wasn’t going to argue with Audubon.

   does licking them clean count?

2. Marguerite Says:
   September 15th, 2011 at 8:18 pm

   Elegant, really? I rather think the fly is more elegant than the mushroom.

   I know, a slimy green spore mass doesn’t make for elegance. That’s why I quit picking my nose in public.

3. Curbstone Valley Farm Says:
   September 16th, 2011 at 8:37 pm

   Stinkhorns usually elude me, although for that I suppose I should be grateful I haven’t seen this type before. I know the Clathrus ruber stinkhorn grows around here though, and some of the stinkhorns are actually quite pretty. Someday maybe I’ll find one!

4. sharkbytes Says:
   September 16th, 2011 at 11:17 pm

   the only stinkhorn I’ve seen is the dog stinkhorn

5. rainfield Says:
   September 17th, 2011 at 7:20 pm

   It looked like your stink finger.

6. Indie Says:
   September 18th, 2011 at 8:51 am

   Another interesting mushroom post. Never seen one of those either! In my yard I usually only get the cute garden variety mushrooms and the ‘eww-did-a-deer-yac-in-our-yard?’ slime mushrooms.

Leave a Comment

Comment Feed
You might want to see my response to the stuff people throw in the box
 Subscribe in a reader