|
Devil's Tongue Fungi
Photo:
C & D Frith
Australian Tropical Rainforest Life
Devil’s Tongue Fungi
- This fungus is also known as the Devil’s Dipstick and the Dog Stinkhorn (Mutinus
caninus).
- It can be seen as a solitary fungus or clustered with others on the ground or
rotten wood in gardens, roadsides, woods, etc.
- It is not poisonous and although the mature specimens are hardly tempting, the
eggs are supposedly quite tasty when peeled and rolled in flour seasoned with garlic, salt
and pepper, dipped into beaten egg and then re-rolled in the flour mix before frying in
butter and oil. This may be served with crackers and cream cheese.
- It begins as an ‘egg’ up to 2.5 cm high, has white skin or sometimes a
faint pink or yellow tinge, with an inner gelatinous layer rupturing to form a volva at
the base of the stalk. The mature fruiting body is 5-10 cm high and 0.5-1.2 cm thick. It
is unbranched, roughly cylindrical and slender, and has no differentiated cap. Instead it
has a blunt and often perforated tip.
- The fertile portion covers the upper 2-3 cm of fruiting body (apart from the very
tip) and is bright orange-red to pink in colour. At first it is covered wit olive-brown
spore slime.
- The roughly equally narrow stalk, the same colour as the cap or a little paler,
is hollow, fragile and spongy (minutely chambered).
- It lacks a veil (indusium).
- The spores are 3-7 x 1.5-2.5 microns, elliptical or oblong, and smooth.
- Mature specimens can have a unappealing smell, but it is probably not as bad as
other types of Stinkhorns.
- In Oregon, a completely white variety of this species has been found, although it
may in fact be a distinct species itself.
|
