Wild Mushrooms of Ainsworth: Stinkhorns!

I think I have solved the mystery of last summer's ugly mushrooms: they were immature stinkhorns. They never matured, perhaps because of the drought.

But now their relatives are springing up. And once again I'm finding the sort of mushroom that long ago I misidentified as an out-of-season black morel, until someone more knowledgeable came along and set me straight.

So basically this is the tale of "The Ugly Duckling" as told by mushrooms: an ugly child grows up and transforms into something not only magnificently ugly but also foul-smelling.

Here is the veil. The stinkhorn is inside.

(Click on images to enlarge)

This veil has ruptured. You can see the clear slime, and little clots of dirt suspended in it cast shadows on the body of the stinkhorn inside.


Here's what that ruptured veil had produced by late the next morning.


Disgusting, isn't it?

By late afternoon, it looked like this:



Old age and youth, side by side:


This is the old man when he was in his prime (white cardboard behind for contrast):


This is known as the "common stinkhorn," of which there are two varieties, and based on the purple tinge of the veil, I think what we've got here is Phallus hadriani. MushroomExpert.com has an interesting article about common stinkhorns.

They really do stink, by the way. I didn't notice it at first, but once I got up close and personal with one, so I could recognize the smell — then I found I could recognize it from about five feet away.