Melissa Harrison in The Times often writes interestingly about the fungal life that surrounds us. Here she pens a nature note to one of the most striking fungi that pops up at this time of year:
“The pale, phallic shape of a stinkhorn can be quite a startling sight, emerging from leaf litter in deciduous woods and sometimes parks and gardens. Even more startling is the smell, which is of rotting flesh; it can carry for quite some distance, and is revolting up close. The fungus begins as a white egg from which the shaft quickly emerges, growing at a rate of between 10cm and 15cm an hour. At first the head is covered in brown, sticky slime; this contains the spores, which are dispersed by flies attracted to the putrid smell. Eventually the spore-filled slime is gone, leaving a white cap with a honeycomb-like structure.”
Next time Stalker sees one of the tell-tale “white eggs”, it could give a chance to sit, and watch it erupt, so precipitously!
