When I first saw these in my garden this morning, I thought they were upside-down carrots. But I hadn’t planted any carrots and they were in the dirt close to dying stalks of some cilantro and dill. Five hours later, they’re dried out, almost as though they were never there. Weird.
What lies underground…I’d like to know.
I have it on good authority (the poets Rodney Jones and Jon Tribble) that these are stinkhorn mushrooms.
Larramie–I’ll never tell!
PB–Ew. They did kind of smell. Want them on pizza tonight?!
Always one to help solve a plant mystery – Pinckney is right. The Devil’s Dipstick, Dog Stinkhorn , or dog penis mushroom, of you will, – a.k.a Mutinus caninus or elegans, perhaps – order Phallales, family Phallaceae. Edible only in the egg stage – sorry about your pizza, L. Considered to be a separate species from the Phallus genus because these mimic doggy male bits (as opposed to human males, for whom the phallus impudicus is named after [http://www.mushroomexpert.com/phallus_impudicus.html if you need to see more])
If you think this is crazy you should read about orchids someday!
I’d rather think of them as carrots! Ugh–that muddy stuff on the end was nasty. I can’t even imagine how anyone would find them in the egg stage–they showed up and then were gone in a matter of hours. It still smells in the garden, though.
Thanks for the info!