3.22.2005

For Michuli

Michuli: Does your mystery fungus look anything like the one in the picture below? These fungi are usually found in the summer and fall. They smell very bad but are not poisonous. This particular one is the dog stinkhorn, Mutinus caninus.

1 comment:

swamp4me said...

Nice mushroom! I think it is probably a columnar stinkhorn. Scientific name, Linderia columnata or, in some texts, Clathrus columnatus. Some references state that it is poisonous, others that it is non-poisonous, and others still that its edibility is unknown. My guess would be that it isn't -- your dogs would probably have shown some ill effects by now if it had been.