These strange ball shaped fungi pop up whenever it rains. I assume it's a fungus. Can someone please identify it for me. These actually detatch themselves and roll away in the wind.
Thank you. At first I thought it was a childs rotting ball till I saw one pushing its way out of the mulch
Oh what a splendid stink horn! I've wanted to see these ever since someone first posted one awhile ago. We only get the...er...embarassing looking ones here. The nets on u'res are just beautiful with all that detail.
I found one last week about 5 inches round and it was perfectly round like ball. Why are they called stink horns? Do they stink?
The odor to most will leave one wishing they'd never sniffed them....some smell like dead animals. I only get a bit of 'rotting mushroom' smell to the ones I've 'met'. I don't now the correct termanology but I refer to them as pheremones....insects can smell them for quiet a distance away and are attracted to them...where they'll collect the spore un-wittingly and spread it to the next locations they visit.
Yes, they stink, and a lot of them are horn-shaped, or, errr.... well.... take a look at pics of the type species of the family Phallus impudicus: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=Phallus impudicus . . . gives a good idea of why Linnaeus named it Phallus impudicus. Even earlier (in 1623), the Dutch botanist Bauhin called it Fungus foetidus penis imaginem referens . . .
Are these desirable in the garden or do they take all the nitrogen from the soil that my plants need? Sould I dig these out? I find these are a noval item in my garden during the rains.
