Friday Squid Blogging: Stinky Squid
It’s a mushroom: Pseudocolus fusiformis.
Comments
Roger • September 12, 2009 1:43 AM
A few refs on the net seem to agree that it is not poisonous, but tastes utterly revolting.
Laurent • September 12, 2009 3:07 PM
Thanks !
This post allowed me to know what kind of alien I discovered in my garden one year ago.
Len • September 12, 2009 3:58 PM
My goodness, who would EAT a stinkhorn!? I had some of the less squidlike and more – ahem – phallic versions growing in between two old stumps in my yard, and spending time downwind from them was a great incentive to pull the dead stumps (and thus the stinkhorns) out, yet me tell you. Yecch. Only thing that loved them was the flies. Like it was rotting meat, there was so many that they made the vile things look like they were spotted-to-solid black instead of mottled dark green. Again, yecch.
Greg • September 13, 2009 11:52 AM
There is a pretty amusing description of what this mushroom smells like here:
http://www.slashfood.com/2008/09/03/chasing-the-wild-mushroom-part-three/
“This is the Stinky Squid, Pseudocolus schellenbergiae. It has an absolutely fetid, disgusting, odor that reminds you of rotting squid guts. Actually, fermented squid guts don’t smell anywhere near as bad. trust me, I’ve eaten them many times. But you couldn’t get me to even think about getting a Stinky Squid mushroom near my nose, let alone mouth. They can be smelled many feet, sometimes yards away. It is not recommended to try to eat a Stinky Squid mushroom. Repeat, it is not recommended to try to eat a Stinky Squid mushroom. It is of the Stinkhorn family of mushrooms, all of which, stink. For many of the Stinkhorn family it is not known if they are edible. I guess no one was brave enough to get past their odor.”
mcb • September 14, 2009 12:05 PM
And lest we forget
“Clathrus columnatus is somewhat similar, but its arms do not arise from a shared stem, and the slime is only under the fused tips of arms.”
Sounds like a scene from John Carpenter’s The Thing…
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Adqam • September 12, 2009 12:08 AM
I wonder what it tastes like..