A beautiful fungi popped up in the garden today. It's a tropical member of the ornate stinkhorn family (Clathraceae) called the starfish fungus (Aseroe rubra). The "tentacles" grow longer than in this picture - these ones hadn't finished unfurling. It first appears from a subterranean "egg" stage like a puff-ball, then the skin splits and out pops the red arms. At maturity it has five to ten radiating arms, each divided into two slender "tentacles." The size can be up to about 8 cm across.
It is very smelly! It relies on attracting flies to spread the spores which are in that smelly brown slimy stuff (spore slime) .
So pretty though!
2 comments:
Beauty Cathy, found one similar in the high mountains years ago, the lobes weren't forked, but the smell was pretty rank!
Found one like this years ago in the high mountains Cathy, the lobes weren't forked though. The smell would have been the same though!
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