Monday 14 November 2011

Fungus

Just found this in my front yard, and I have no idea what it is. I've lived in the bush and a number of rural areas all my life, but I've never seen this before.

When I first found it, I thought it was perhaps some rubbish. It kind of looked like a blob of burnt plastic on the ground. Because it looked strange I poked at it with a stick, and it popped out of the ground:

Black and red sea anemone fungus. Otherwise known as the anemone stinkhorn, sea anemone fungus, starfish fungus or Aseroe rubra, it's scientific name.

The black and red part shown above was flush with the ground. Here is a side view, showing the pink part which was originally hidden:


Here is the top cut in half:


There was this base part hidden in the ground which the top was originally sitting in:


Here is the base pulled out of the ground, it appears to have some kind of root system:


If you have any idea what this is, please let me know.

3 comments:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aseroe_rubra

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  2. well, i could have just emailed you.

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  3. Its a type of basket fungus I think they usually lay just below the surface of the ground, great photos. Saw these years ago after a bonfire thought war of the worlds or something lol

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