Central Pennsylvania Wild Mushroom Club

Based on the current freezing conditions, I'm guessing this might be one of my last non-frozen and non-woody mushroom finds of the 2010 season.  And what a glorious find indeed.  Yeah, it's a stinkhorn.  But give this quirky mushroom some credit.  It has a real individualistic, don't care what anybody thinks, I'm making a living my way attitude.  And I have to respect that.  Plus, this mushroom is not afraid of a little cold weather.  As noted, it was the next to last mushroom I likely will find this year.  The last mushroom I found, by the way, was found at the end of the first week in December.  It was growing in some poor ground in gravel.  It was frozen solid when I found it but was still fresh, having popped up right after a heavy, warm rain a few days prior.  I had to admire that hardy, albeit anonymous, mushroom.  But I digress. 

I have previously found stinkhorns very late in the year.  Several years ago I found a live stinkhorn during a warm period in late December, the latest point in the year I believe I have ever seen a live mushroom outdoors.  It was growing in some bark mulch.  Late last fall I found a couple of stinkhorns near my garden, growing between a pile of sawdust and some wood chips in which I grow Winecaps.  There were just a few of them and I somehow managed not to get a photo of them.  Fortunately, they came back in force this year.  They did not grow in the exact same spot as last year but had expanded their territory outward to the edge of the sawdust pile and into the wood chips.  I took a few photos and then dug several of them out to compose a family photo of sorts, see below. 

These are, in my humble fungal opinion, some pretty interesting mushrooms with their spongy stem and olive green cap.  And then there are the "eggs."  The mushroom fruiting bodies develop in a universal veil of sorts, similar in appearance to that of an Amanita.  Help me here, Barrie, if I have the facts or terminology in error.  The eggs develop just at the surface of the ground and can be seen without digging if you look closely around the first mature specimens you find.  They are small and white at first and then expand and turn pink, until finally the mushroom breaks through in a kind of volval cup.  And there is one other rather unusual feature.  You will notice at the bottom of the photo white root-like strands.  But mushrooms don't have vascular roots like green plants.  These growths are mycelial cords which I believe are called rhizomorphs. 

This species, I believe it is Phallus ravenelii, is actually one of the more plain variety of stinkhorns.  It has some rather ornate cousins.  The smell, of rotting flesh, from which the stinkhorn gets it's first name is intended to attract flies which carry away the spores to assist in propagating the species.  I did not find the odor of these mushrooms particularly offensive but the weather was cool and there's that country boy upbringing to take into account.  Finally, believe it or not, the eggs are reportedly edible.  They are claimed by none other than the famous Charles McIlvaine to be "a most tender, agreeable food" when sliced and fried.  Apparently, few have had the culinary courage to verify this claim.  I have not yet sampled them but if they continue their invasion into my Stropharia bed, then next year...

Dave