Wildlife Spotting

The stinkhorn fungus has white, gelatinous, spherical "bulbs" that serve as the fruit structure of the fungi and grow in the undergrowth. When mature, it has red, finger and sponge like projections called the receptaculum that stick out of the surface of the ground. I found three 'bulbs" growing next to each other. The first was mature and about the size of a golf ball. The second was a bit smaller than the first. I cut it open to find five red fingers growing inside. In the center was the brown, paste like gleba which contains the spores. The gleba produces a bad odor that smells of rotting flesh. The small one, about the size of a quarter, lacked the red fingers. I dug them up so our pets couldn't mess with them. I didn't get pictures before that because I didn't know what it was.