Fungi: Phallus impudicus

[goosey]

Today I spotted what I think is an emerging common stinkhorn. I have never seen one before at any stage so would love to get a picture of it in its full glory. What it is the chance of it having fully grown by tomorrow - would I be wasting my time in going back? Will it have come and gone? Or still moreless the same as it is now?

I am not sure what the gooey stuff is - any ideas on that?

Thanks

[Cybershot]

Hi Shirley

I once monitored a couple of Stinkhorns which I found in this so called 'Witches Egg' stage of development and never saw the fully emerged fruiting body and yet I have quite often stumbled over many fine specimens since then. The rank odour all around the vicinity of the mature specimens is a dead giveaway to their presence somewhere in the undergrowth often amongst the ferns. Once they have emerged and the flies have done their bit to spread the spores they are in my experience quite fragile (hollow stems) and short lived:

Stinkhorn - Wildlife and Environment Forums

Good luck

David

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Cybershot

Hi Shirley

I once monitored a couple of Stinkhorns which I found in this so called 'Witches Egg' stage of development and never saw the fully emerged fruiting body and yet I have quite often stumbled over many fine specimens since then. The rank odour all around the vicinity of the mature specimens is a dead giveaway to their presence somewhere in the undergrowth often amongst the ferns. Once they have emerged and the flies have done their bit to spread the spores they are in my experience quite fragile (hollow stems) and short lived:

Stinkhorn - Wildlife and Environment Forums

Good luck

David

Excellent documentation and images - if only all reference books and sources provided something like that.

4 days is mentioned and no change in the "Witches egg" so I thought it was pointless going tomorrow - then I realised it may have been there for days already so I will go - I won't be able to rest otherwise.

In this link the WAB A-Z Stinkhorn - Phallus impudicus | Wild About Britain it says about the emerged stinkhorn having a slimy gleba, which is dark olive, can gleba which isn't Olive be found on the egg - could whats on mine be gleba?

[Cybershot]

If you look at the cross section Shirley, you can see the egg has a gelatinous wall, which contains the gleba which turns olive green on the head of the fungi when emerged, which in your photo appears to have ruptured just prior to the stem etc emerging, and what you see is this skin. In some shots you can also see the remnants of this skin hanging on over the top of the gleba. The flies will clean up this olive gunge as they fly away with it on their legs leaving the morel-like pattern on the cleaned up cap.

David

[goosey]

Your cross section shows the gleba beautifully. I wonder if this early rupturing is common?

I went back at 8am this morning with quite an urgency pedaling away on my bike I wanted to get there before the flies. It was cold so I was hopeful, but there was no change! . I had a look around and sniff incase there were more I had missed yesterday. I might be able to get back Monday but its more likely to be Tuesday.
The only good thing that came out of it was I saw 2 buzzards, deer, highland cattle, wild Konnick horses, squirrels and my first rabbit in the NP.

[Cybershot]

I would certainly be interested to know if your ruptured egg has produced a full blown stem and head by then. It is also interesting to note that the white core of the egg, which eventually develops into the fungus, is edible and tastes, I maintain, of a mix between radish and cabbage stalk (some say a mild horseradish flavour) and would go well in a salad, if you could collect enough that is.

David

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Cybershot

I would certainly be interested to know if your ruptured egg has produced a full blown stem and head by then. It is also interesting to note that the white core of the egg, which eventually develops into the fungus, is edible and tastes, I maintain, of a mix between radish and cabbage stalk (some say a mild horseradish flavour) and would go well in a salad, if you could collect enough that is.

David

Day 3. I re-organised my day to go back again, it was an hours bike ride and a 20 minute walk, but there was still no change after all that. I am begining to think that the early rupturing is effecting the development.

I will not be tasting it!

[Cybershot]

Originally Posted by goosey

Day 3. I re-organised my day to go back again, it was an hours bike ride and a 20 minute walk, but there was still no change after all that. I am begining to think that the early rupturing is effecting the development.

I will not be tasting it!

All that energy expended in your search for an erect Phallus........how frustrating. Have you tried a sprinkling of viagra

I had the very same problem when monitoring some G. Triplex - Collared Earthstar

Geastrum triplex - Collared Eathstar - Wildlife and Environment Forums

which took forever to emerge from their 'tulip bulb' stage of development. But the difference with them is that they are longer lasting and go through various more stages of morphology on their way to maturity so well worth persevering with to study these extraordinary species.

Hoping you strike it lucky with your quest either to see your eggs develop or in finding an already mature specimen.

David

[goosey]

Day 4. Guess where I went? I couldn't let it rest so went again, there was no visible sign of any change at all, even the gleba was still there.
Less than 1m away were another two, they certainly were not there yesterday, what is odd though they both have also both ruptured early. Do you think there is something wrong in the environment which is making this happen to specimens in the area or they just might be a different type of Stinkhorn which acts differently?

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Cybershot

All that energy expended in your search for an erect Phallus........how frustrating. Have you tried a sprinkling of viagra

I had the very same problem when monitoring some G. Triplex - Collared Earthstar

Geastrum triplex - Collared Eathstar - Wildlife and Environment Forums

which took forever to emerge from their 'tulip bulb' stage of development. But the difference with them is that they are longer lasting and go through various more stages of morphology on their way to maturity so well worth persevering with to study these extraordinary species.

Hoping you strike it lucky with your quest either to see your eggs develop or in finding an already mature specimen.

David

Its great to be able to collate all the evidence like that and makes interesting reading, but it really helps it come to light to have the corrisponding photographs. Have you done the same for other fungi like you have with Collared Eathstars and Stinkhorns?
You must be so patient - four days and I am going crazy, I will probably have to resort to viagra after all .

[Cybershot]

Hi Shirley

I've been doing a bit more research by trawling the internet and at least three reputable sites claim the emergence from the egg occurs in a matter of hours, so our mutual experiences appear to be abnormal for some reason if it's taking a number of days for them to develop. A friend with whom I was foraying yesterday also maintains that they will also emerge if you take the egg home......... but would you want the carrion smell on your premises?

David

[Cybershot]

Originally Posted by goosey

Its great to be able to collate all the evidence like that and makes interesting reading, but it really helps it come to light to have the corrisponding photographs. Have you done the same for other fungi like you have with Collared Eathstars and Stinkhorns?
You must be so patient - four days and I am going crazy, I will probably have to resort to viagra after all .

In my early days of foraying I did a similar thing for Amanita muscaria - Fly Agaric, but not in quite so much detail.

[goosey]

Day 5: NO CHANGE (Yes, I am shouting) to the original egg or the two from yesterday.

However, I found four more in at a different site. All four had prematurely ruptured but one was changing, the top had split. They were all smaller than the other three. There was no odour yet, but I imagine this will have fully emerged by now - and I have missed it!




I found them very close to a path on a bank just about at eye level, so placed some branches strategically to hide them from obvious view. This probably why I can never find what I am after, people strategically place things so I can't find them - the cheek .

[goosey]

David said about this image

Originally Posted by Cybershot

Looks like this one matured and got snapped off/nibbled away at the base of the stem which you can see is hollow

So not what I thought - I was too late!
I had a look today and this one plus two others from yesterday had completely gone, the 4th hasn't changes appearance though.

Day 6. Oh dear, I so nearly got there on time (8.25am) but the flies and slug got there first. As you can see it had toppled over. It was very smelly - but I will remember that smell and may be able to sniff out more ripe specimens in future.

This is the fungus that I first posted about on 18-09-2008 - what a shame after all that - at least I got a picture though. (But was it worth the ticks, house work I let pile up while I was on this crusade and miles and miles of pedaling )




The other two are still there, but I don't think I can face going back and check on them.

[Cybershot]

Such a shame after all that effort Shirley, but I am sure you will get your just desserts eventually even if not from this particular location. At least you've now proved that development from 'egg' to maturity can vary from hours to several days, presumably depending on the prevailing conditions and nutrients in the substrate.

David

[goosey]

I have been back to the two places where the "eggs" are yesterday and today, and they are still at the egg stage. I hadn't been to check Wednesday and had expected to have been too late. It has been 4 days since I found one and 5 days the pair. I really think that the length of time from egg to emergence must be normal here - whether its that they are on very sandy soil and it is too well drained or the fact it hasn't rained for quite a couple of weeks.

[goosey]

I got it! My picture of an intact Stinkhorn .
I went back this morning - I knew it had happened before I got there because of the smell but I didn't know what state I would find it in. It was one of the pair of eggs I first noticed on the 21st. The second had already started to change, apparantly it only takes a couple of hours to totally emerge once it gets to this stage.



My mission is over - who knows where I can find a Dog stinkhorn?.

[Cybershot]

Bravo - a fine specimen! Well done; I knew you could pull it off with your patience, determination and perseverance. And achieved without the use of viagra

Found the Dog Stinkhorn in Pamber Forest, Hampshire UK last week but that's a bit further than an hours bike ride and a 20 minute walk for you :

[goosey]

Thanks David - I felt like I needed to take a bow after all your congratulations . I can't believe how pleased I was when I found it this morning, it made all the effort worth while.

I won't make it to Pamber Forest - but I will be keeping my nose to the ground for a dog stinkhorn. I thought I would be satisfied once I got this piccie but now for all those other fungi on my wish list!

[goosey]

I thought I was done with this thread!

Today I was wandering my favourite haunts and low and behold I saw one of the "witches eggs" I spotted on 22nd September in the second location, with the ruptured gleba. It was still an egg 14 days since I first saw it! I know for sure it is the same one as I covered it from view of the path. That is a long time not to have emerged!

[Cybershot]

Based on our independent experiences of monitoring this species in their 'egg' stage I am convinced that we have both found specimens which, for whatever reason, never fully mature: Maybe the immediate environments were not fully compatible or the fungal skirmish with another species, vying for supremacy over the same substrate, was lost.

David

[Cybershot]

On Saturday the 'Shrooms Group (ABFG) found and tasted a large 'Witches Egg' and then discovered this smallish mature specimen which shows that the flies have nearly completed their task in removing all the olive coloured spore mass from the head of the fungus, revealing the morel-like form and pattern: