Fantastic Fungi! Mushrooms, puffballs, and slime molds
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Ravenel's Stinkhorn fungus; Phallus ravenelii
Height: 5-1/4" - 7-3/4" This is one fungus you'll not soon forget! It smells like animal feces to attract flies (note the two flies and a moth). The flies spread the sticky spores on their feet to other areas. Check out the genus name! Mr. Ravenel must have really liked this fungus! ;) Mushrooms and other fungi are not plants, therefore they do not produce flowers. Fungi reproduce by making microscopic spores.
Columned Stinkhorn; Clathrus columnatus
Height: 3" Milton, FL December 26, 2008 This Stinkhorn is being visited by flies which will spread its spores.
Quince Rust; Gymnosporangium clavipes
Oak Ridge, TNMarch 15, 2009 I noticed this weird gel fungus growing on an Eastern Red Cedar tree in my neighborhood. It had just finished raining, so the tree was still quite damp. According to a plant pathologist from Cornell University (who kindly identified it for me), this fungus will "infect the stem and will eventually girdle and kill the infected branch." This fungus is in the same genus as the Cedar Apple gall (Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae). We do have quince and apple trees growing nearby which serve as the "summer host" of the fungi. The spores alternate between the two different kinds of trees through the fungi's life cycle.
. The dark powder is the spore mass. These puffballs are often found growing in sandy soil. The species name, geaster, means "earth star".
Gem-studded Puffball; Lycoperdon perlatum
Height: 1-1/4" - 3" I like these pretty puffballs. They often occur in groups.
I found these strange Brown Puffballs at the Obed Wild and Scenic River.
Stinky Squid Stinkhorn; Pseudocolus fusiformis
Oak Ridge, TN July 3, 2013 This weird fungus was growing in the mulch at a friend's house. The "arms" were not open at the top.
This "unripe" Cedar apple rust gall was photographed in early March. The little circles are where the fruiting bodies will emerge.
This fascinating little Birdsnest fungus grows on mulch. The spores are located in the little "eggs" (spore sacs) which are ejected when hit by falling raindrops. One of my students spotted a cluster of these fungi during an outdoor activity and she became very upset. I couldn't understand why she would freak out over a fungus until she started saying something about a wasp nest on the ground. It took me awhile to convince her they weren't harmful!
Touch a puffball and watch the spores puff out the hole in the middle, like "smoke."
Devil's Urn fungus; Urnula craterium
This cup fungus is often found on dead oak trees. Many types of fungi are species-specific to the substrate they will grow on.
Columned Stinkhorn emerges from the soil by these veiled, slightly slimy buttons. They reminded me of some creepy alien being getting ready to erupt from the soil!
A nearly-ripe Cedar Apple gall
Birdsnest Fungus FamilyRacheff Gardens - Knoxville, TNJuly 19, 2007 These cute little fungi often grow on mulch. The tiny "eggs" are spore cases which are released when hit by falling raindrops. The brown ones at the bottom and the white one second from the top have not yet opened.
Kenny got a bit carried away when I asked him to poke some puffballs to release the spores! There's nothing like a "cheap thrill", we find entertainment in the strangest places!:)
Fuzzy Splash Cups fungus
Columned Stinkhorn; Clathrus columnatus
Height: 3"Milton, FLDecember 24, 2006 Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! I found this weird stinkhorn fungus while walking my parents' dog in Florida. I thought the "arms" might open at the top, making it a "Stinky Squid" Stinkhorn, but upon closer inspection I realized it does not open. Like the previous stinkhorn, it produces a slimy spore mass which is spread by flies. I noticed several small flies on the fungi. It didn't smell quite as unpleasant as the Ravenel's Stinkhorn, the aroma reminded me of the odor of a slightly sweet, rotting lettuce!
Cedar Apple Rust Gall; Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae
This may look like something from outer space, but it is just a strange fungus. The Cedar Apple Rust Gall leads a double life, one part on Eastern Red Cedar trees and the other part on apple trees. In the winter it lives as a hard brown gall on the twigs of a cedar tree. The orange, spore-producing growths, called "telia" swell when they absorb water from rain. As the telia swell and shrink they eject spores into the air. If the spores land on the wet leaf of a near-by apple tree they can grow. Later in the summer spores are released and drift to cedar trees, starting the process all over again. The following photo shows a "ripe" gall.
Scleroderma Earthstar; Scleroderma geaster
Milton, FLDecember 24, 2006 I had been looking for an Earthstar fungus to photograph for quite awhile, but this was not exactly what I had in mind. The name of this puffball sounds like an unpleasant, scaly skin condition! When it opens to release its' spores, the outer covering splits, looking like a small star on the surface of the soil. See next photo.
Milton, FLDec. 26, 2008
I asked Kenny to poke some puffballs so I could get a photo of the spores being released... (see following photo)
Scarlet Cup Fungus; Sarcoscypha coccinea
AscomycetesMarch 20, 2010Norris, TN Norris Dam State Park I got quite a surprise when I tried to blow a bit of dead leaf out of one of these cups, it puffed back with its spores! It looked as though it was giving off smoke!