When my coworker and I came back from lunch we discovered this orange tentacle thing growing out of the ground. I naturally thought It was a space octopus or something that had fallen to Earth and was planning to take over. I accidentally broke this specimen when I was poking it with my leatherman. You can see the spongy internal structure and some of the spore goo on the pieces. When I brought my camera down to take pictures of it I got a lot of funny looks from people as I knelt over it. I typed a description into Google and discovered it is a type of stinkhorn mushroom, Clathrus columnatus. Apparently the horrible smell of the things attracts flies to distribute the spores. The thing I found most amusing was not the space octopus idea but the fact that this thing was in a location where people are supposed to be aware of their surroundings but I'm the only one who noticed the bright orange tentacle growing out of the green grass.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
What an incredible smell you've discovered!
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