Thursday, September 8, 2011

Phallic fungus in the front yard

I have some pretty things growing in my garden.

I have american beautyberry.  These bright purple berries will feed birds in late winter.










I have boltonia with its masses of white flowers:


I even have some switchgrass:














However, I also have something not too pretty in the front yard.  It has a rather suggestive shape, don't you think?


Most are upright.  Some are floppy.


They also attract flies because they smell:

After a little web research I discovered these are called "dog stinkhorn" fungus.  Mutinus caninus I think.  They have a sac-like structure from which the orange fruiting body emerges.  (Great.  Like we really needed more analogous body parts here.)  Also, according to one website these fungi are a delicacy in China.  They are eaten as an aphrodisiac.  Gee, what a surprise.  The same website also says there isn't a way to get rid of them short of paving over the yard.

So to sum up:  I have lots of brightly-colored,  phallic-shaped fungi.  They are in my front yard.  They smell.  They attract flies.  There's nothing I can do about it.

Wonderful.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

eat them out of existence?
(Assuming you're not afraid of being poisoned to death...)