Tales from the Wood (The Stinkhorn)

There is a bit of a storm blowing in at the moment. It has got a bit crazy and prompted a quick look at the BBC weather forecast. I see that “extreme rain” is forecast on my head in the next couple of hours.

So settle down and I will tell you a story instead…

Nature has so many different and wonderful ways of reproducing a species. Sometimes she can be very imaginative. Such is the case with today’s subject,

Phallus impudicus, the Stinkhorn Fungus.

Now even if you only got a B in Latin you can probably figure out the meaning of the name Phallus impudicus and a fungus that looks like this has obviously attracted quite a few common names. I don’t think that it is necessary to repeat them here, this is a serious nature observation.

I do feel a little bit sorry for this fungi because of all the means of reproduction that are available this seems to be one of the least rewarding and maybe Mother Nature was in a bit of a mood when she came up with this idea.

The spores that will ensure the continuation of this species are contained in the green slime that covers the cap of the fungus. That slime is known as the “Gleba”. It stinks of rotting flesh. Flies are drawn to the smell and quickly strip the gleba away. The gleba not only smells disgusting but it gives the flies diarrhoea thus ensuring that the spores fall locally in an area that is suitable for them to grow.

This is a Witch’s Egg. That is the only name that I have ever known for it but witches don’t come out of these, Stinkhorns do. This is an immature Stinkhorn Fungi.

When I found this I was quite excited, I already knew quite a bit about Stinkhorns. When they burst out of the egg they grow very quickly, they have been recorded growing six inches in an hour I was determined to video and photograph this event.

I found it on a Friday morning. I was down for a three day camp in the woods. I watched my mushroom very carefully…. for three days. Eventually on Sunday afternoon I had to give it up. It hadn’t done a thing and I went home very disappointed.

I went back to the wood the following Saturday and it was still there, so I resumed my watch. I slept in the wood that night and when I went to check it in the morning it had grown and I had missed it. By the time that I arrived on the scene it was already fully grown and half devoured and I could only watch the last part of the act.

I had to switch to flash to record what happened next, it was just too dark in the wood for my camera of the time.

The delicious gleba drove the flies into a frenzy

It only took them about an hour to finish the whole thing.

So lessons learnt. If you ever find a Stinkhorn in the woods in good condition take lots of photographs, they really don’t stay in that condition for very long, the flies find them and strip them very quickly. If you find a Witch’s Egg you will need lots of sandwiches and a flask and you have to watch it very carefully. They are very tricky things.

Final bit of information, the Stinkhorn is edible and consumed with relish in France and Germany. I don’t actually fancy this one myself.