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What is this?
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Posted by Mainiac 5b Maine (My Page) on Mon, Sep 6, 04 at 14:14
| I came across this in my garden yesterday. It is about 2 1/2 inches and the color of a mushroom. Soft and pliable surface. No roots. Sort of heavy for it's size. Anyone know what it is? Is it good or bad..
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What is this?
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| My guess is fungus, neither good nor bad. I chop them with a hoe and mix back into the soil. Others may have a different experience. |
RE: What is this?
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| It looks like a puffball mushroom to me. We have a lot of them in the last week or so. |
RE: What is this?
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When you say no roots
what exactly is there? Does it look the same as on the top, do you suspect it may be a childish prank or synthetic mishap? My first thought was a weighted sponge painted of latex and you wanted to trick us! My second thought was that you were serious and suspected a mushroom as you compared it to one in color. However, you said it had no roots...and there is soil particles laying on top of it so it either was near dirt slinging activity or it grew as a fungus so quickly that the dirt is still breaking away from its new growth. Was that a speciesest remark in regards to the color of the mushroom- are you suggesting that there is a color denoted as "mushroom color?" On many walk I have spotted bright yellow colored mushrooms, and others of a rich orange with interesting characteristics. I am checking my shittake innoculated oak logs...all 8 of them which I got a kit from the full circle fair , did what they told me and still....I have yet to harvest any shittake mushrooms nor be able to identify them...It's been a full year (calendar wise) so I am thinking that they were harvested at the time of me purchasing them. Well I didnt see the same people again this year to ask why. But I will keep my eyes for any lifting of the wax used to seal the dowel pieces injected into the 8 oak logs last October. Any body out there with shittake expereince...ok ok I'll go to the moss forum and see if they can help me there. Cheers- NO, I dont know what that is a picture of. |
RE: What is this?
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After making a few phone calls I was put in touch with a professor at the University of Maine who, after exchaning pictures, was able to ID this as a Stinkhorn Egg. Here is her reply:
I don't think what you have is a truffle. Truffles are lumpy, very solid
and fragrant.
They are typically buried about 6 to 12 inches into the ground near the
roots of
decidious trees.
It looks like you found this close to the surface of the soil and from your
description I
think you have a stink horn egg. Please cut it in half and send me a photo.
I have
attached two photos. One showing a stink horn egg whole and cut in half and
the
other showing a grown stinkhorn.
Stinkhorns are fungi that use flies to move their spores around. When they
mature
the egg cracks open at the top and the long stalk extends up. It has a
black shiny
material at its tip that is a mixture of sugars and spores. It smells like
rotting meat to
attract flies to come and eat some of the mixture and then transport the
spores to a
new site. They are typically found in soil with mulch added or wood chips.
They can
smell horrible so don't bring it into your house. The eggs are supposedly
edible
when young but the smell turns me off so much I can't imagine eating it.
They are not poisonous and are not doing anything to your garden besides
decomposing some of the dead plant material but they do smell horendous
(especially in close quarters). |
RE: What is this?
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| Ravenel's Stinkhorn 
The things you see and learn on here!
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Here is a link that might be useful: WOW, check this out
RE: What is this?
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Just in case you are wondering, here's the inside
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RE: What is this?
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| What great photos! I have found these in my mulch pile. I thought they were rotten duck eggs that had gotten buried there. Thanks for the education!!! |
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