Help! Weirdness in Hosta Garden!!!

[John]

Here is a photo and closeup of something shocking that appeared overnight (?) in my Hosta Garden, near the Bletilla hardy orchids. I am guessing it is a fungus? The ball-like things are about 1" wide, the red-orange tongue thing is about 6" long. The whole plant is growing quite close to the ground. There are more of them... The 'balls' seem to be covered with thin brown membrane, through which something white and shiny bursts, then maybe that is what elongates into that...thing.

I am asking for your help in identifying this, please! I will note that the soil is quite acid, and is presently very soggy from the recent hurricane. It has also been excessively hot. Perhaps it took all this to instigate growth? Could it be symbiotic with the Bletilla? Will it hurt the Hosta?

Thank you for any assistance!

John

[ogrefcf]

Elegant Stinkhorn or Dog stinkhorn, a smelly mushroom is my guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutinus_elegans

I got a different kind of Stinkhorn this year also. Don't think they do much, just dug mine up.

[ogrefcf]

Oh, and the weather caused it is my guess, I believe they are more tropical. So all that rain might have caused em to sprout.

[thy]

John, have you had visitors from Out of Space

Beautiful and creapy

Ohh, the other one I know..Stinking Penis or Daddy go wash

May have a latin name too, but then I have to look it up in a book

[John]

Thank you both for the fast replies! You are right! Here is a good link to the 'stinkhorn', Mutinus elegans,or possibly, M. caninus.

thy, that common name of Daddy-Go-Wash is truly repulsive, blecch.

I wonder if these will disappear as fast as they came? Rain is forecast here for days to come.

That slime is actually part of the plant, it is said to be strongly scented (I didn't get too close~) and attract insect which then spread the spores.

There are actually all kinds of mushrooms popping up, but nothing like that!

Thanks again. Maybe I should post on the Exchange Forum? What am I offered? <jk>

John

[ogrefcf]

No problem John. My guess is the common names are slang as they aren't very appropriate.

[viktoria]

In medieval England, when a dog penis mushroom was found, a clergyman was summoned to perform an exorcism, as the "member" was thought to belong to the Devil.

Just a thought...

Viktoria

[rosemarie]

Good grief!!!
Weird is right!!!

[thy]

Slang

My grandmother learned me the word for the fungus, even she did not use the latin word penis, but the Danish word" tissemand", the slang word "pik" is very common too. Think she was born around 1885, so slang
The other name I learned when I was young and is common here too..

If you think sexual abuse, think twice, names are man /boy go wash too and I think it refere to old time and an other way of .. or rather lack of the use of water and soap... we do not have to go that far back in history, maybe 100 years or so. A bath was an luxery or felt like a ponisment maybe one or two times a year... how would you smell

Victoria nail it good even I had never heard it before . Good thing we do not have those ceremonies anymore, some years tthere are a lot of those dog- someone made it more acceptable /man penis mushrooms in the forest where I live
- I'm from Denmark and I do not think we blus easy

Pia

[John]

Didn't take any more photos, but today each one of those white bulbous things has turned into another... red-orange thing. Really gross looking.

Love the exorcism story, Viktoria. I'd need a priest on stand-by. Maybe I should find my copy of the Ritual. It is certainly odd how Nature repeats certain forms.

[Mark Raw]

When saw first saw the picture I thought how repulsive but would have guessed at a fungus type thing. God I would have been scared at first before I realised what it was. may also have thought at a glimes of it a banana type slug creature, I get banana slugs a lot and there huge God I hate them with passion.

[Chris_W]

I think I'd be digging them up and throwing them in the trash to try and prevent these things from producing spores, or whatever it is that they do to reproduce

[Mark Raw]

Yes me too.

[thy]

Just have some weird pictures in my head about places to drop them

[Kas]

When saw first saw the picture I thought how repulsive but would have guessed at a fungus type thing. God I would have been scared at first before I realised what it was. may also have thought at a glimes of it a banana type slug creature, I get banana slugs a lot and there huge God I hate them with passion.

I used to spear the banana slugs with a stick and throw them into the woods. Not anymore. I found out that they do not eat hostas or other living plants. They are detritus eaters only. They are very good for the forest. Now I feel bad about killing so many. But I always kill leopard slugs. They eat other slugs including the good banana slugs.

[viktoria]

I think I'd be digging them up and throwing them in the trash to try and prevent these things from producing spores, or whatever it is that they do to reproduce

I saw one in my garden years ago and then never again (and I was laughing so hard I forgot to take a photo!) so it does not look likely they will be taking over the world. By the time I remembered to show it to DH (the next day), it had lost its 3r3ction and was limp and shriveled.

Viktoria

[eastwood2007]

Just have some weird pictures in my head about places to drop them

Oh, Pia, that's really funny!

[thy]

Victoria...did you really show him an "after"

>
>

[viktoria]

Yes, Pia, I did.

Viktoria, still laughing

[GrannyNanny]

My initial reaction -- and still the best comment -- is EEEEEEEUUUUUW!!!!!!! Phyllis