Discovering the Stinkhorn
Ooey gooey innards! Meet the Lantern Stinkhorn! It is not enough for me to snap the photo to earn my honor with iNaturalist rather I must "meet" the Stinkhorn! Rewind ... I used to see these pop up in the my flowerbeds but not really give them a second though. Today ... since starting a project for my students (KCKCBioD), I have started reconnecting back with my interest in the natural world. First it was a game to ensure that I had more observations than the students, of course! But then I realized it is only when I started researching the organisms that I was identifying that I became truly excited. Now don't get me wrong, the funny "phallic" objects in my flowerbed got us curious. Side note: there are many different species of these uniquely shaped fungi belonging to the Family Phallacaea (I love taxonomy). But when I looked inside the stinkhorn, I saw the prized, stinky goo. This goo emits a scent that is appealing to some species, like flies. They are attracted to the goo, they feed on it (spores included) then later deposit spores via their feces in other locations. Brilliant example of co-evolutionary (?) adaptations or perhaps a symbiosis that evolved. It is said that the putrid smell of the stinkhorn is what lures flies to the goo and, perhaps, repels predators from the fungi. Food for the insect and reproductive success for the fungi. Of course with so many species, there may be multiple mechanisms for spore dispersal along with other unique adaptations. At the end of the day,
Nature is so Cool!
