This Essay Stinks!

Fellow blogger Jim Wright recently posted a photo of a strange, brightly colored fungus and asked for help in identifying it. After glancing at a couple of books and web sites, I mistakenly called it “Columned Stinkhorn”. A day later I looked at one more field guide and changed my mind. It turned out to be “Stinky Squid,” a related species.

Its name is certainly appropriate. Its horns somewhat resemble a squid’s tentacles. And it, along with the other stinkhorns, uses flies to spread its spores. Smelling like rotting meat or dead bodies is a good idea for attracting flies. In fact, when I gently nudged these specimens to position them for their portraits, then took a whiff of my hand—Whew!

The chemical compounds that impart the odor certainly have appropriate names: putrescene and cadaverine. They are so powerful that their presence in only 5 to 10 parts per million is enough to create a stink. Some flowers use the same tactics to draw flies to carry their pollen grains, which after all, are also technically spores (microspores).

Plants and fungi (now classified in separate kingdoms) are incredibly complex chemical factories, capable of producing thousands of organic compounds, not just to stink up the place but as sources of our food, supplements, drugs and a whole lot more. Be sure to thank their Creator for them every day!

When I got home from photographing the Stinky Squids, I washed my hands (of the whole matter?) so I would be just a little less likely to draw flies.