Close encounters of the botanical kind

[dtm]

As those of you on the east coast know, we've been getting a large amount of rain lately. Some of that rain caused this monstrosity to grow in a corner of our lawn (it's linked to more pictures). Anyone know what it is?

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Update: It's a stinkhorn, specifically mutinus elegans. (Or possibly mutinus caninus; they look identical) Thanks to janne and eyelessgame.

And it's gone, thanks to emergency midnight gardening.

Comments

[janne.livejournal.com]

Reminded me of the mushroom with a name that translates to 'stink fungus' in english, so I plugged that into google. Looks like a hit :) http://web.utk.edu/~extepp/profiles/disease/stinkhorn3-s.jpg

Thanks

[dtm]

And, well, hell. So I have to dig it all up soon or it will quickly start to smell like dung (it attracts flies to carry the spores elsewhere).

Well, I suppose something that looks like that couldn't really be expected to be good news.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Wow. It looks like a Farscape alien to me.

Better picture

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/mutinus_elegans.html

Mutinus elegans. At least it's not the related species Phallus impudicus.

"As far as eating them goes, I would suggest waiting a few hours while the slimy tips work up a nice, foetid funk in the hot sun, then reconsidering."

Re: Better picture

[dtm]

I guess I'm lucky that they first sprouted in the middle of a downpour Friday, and that everything was nice and wet all through Saturday so that they didn't have a chance to build up their stink.

It's also nice that Monday morning is when the trash gets collected, so that when I was digging them up at 1 am Saturday night I could be certain that their stink would be carried far away in a few days.

That is the first and hopefully last time I have to do emergency midnight gardening.