Stink Horns |
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| This family contains the mushrooms which you probably would not know were mushrooms!! I find these to be fascinating because of their different forms. They start off looking like a puffball because they are incased in an outer skin known as the 'Peridium'. This soon peels away revealing it's contents that are nothing like the puffballs. As the name suggests, they stink!!! The foul smell however is vital for the dispersal of their spores as they rely on insects which are attracted to the smell. | ||||
| Family: Clathraceae Can be found on ground or on wood. Some have a stems which branch out to form arms at the top, (star fish like structure) or with just a swollen tip, these are often brightly coloured. Others are without stems but form a lattice like structure. They are foul smelling and carry their spores within a layer of slime coating the inner sides of the arms or lattice structure. |
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| Aseroa rubra (Flower fungus)
Found at the Manawatu Gorge Track on April 8th, 2001. Quite an exciting foray for me, a few minutes after I found this mushroom I also found the amazing Hericium clathroides. This mushroom was growing among the dead fibers in the broken edge of a tree branch. All that was visible was the orange arms. You will normally smell this fungus before you see it. It stinks!! Notice how the arms are split in two. The volva or cup is quite clear at the base of the stem which is white and hollow. Eight bright orange arms extend above it. In the centre, the spores line up in a circle in the form of a horrible looking brown slime below which there is just a hollow cavity!! Edibility: NO!!!! Even if it was, the smell would turn away a skunk!! |
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Ileodictyon cibarium (White Basket Fungus) Found on the Manawatu Gorge Track growing from ground. End of July, 2000. As it's common name suggests, it looks like a white basket. The basket is cylindrical in shape coated with the spore carrying slime on the inside of the frame. Starts off as an egg when young, this soon ruptures thus releasing the fully formed basket which quickly expands to take the shape shown in the above picture In the lower picture you can see the egg as it starts to rupture. |
 Expanded basket  Egg rupturing |
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