 For Anyone Interested in the Wildlife of the United Kingdom |
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For Anyone Interested in the Wildlife of the United Kingdom |
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Stinkhorn Fungi
You can't always see them, but you'll know if there's a Stinkhorn in the vicinity. The smell they produce is unmistakable, and it's bad! It's as if someone, or something, in the area has died. Never was a fungi more appropriately named. The purpose of this less than delightful perfume is to attract flies which land on the top of the fungi and transport its spores to new locations. The plan seems to work, as you can see from the photos above. Initially the fungi erupts from a whitish coloured egg in the ground. When "fresh" the cap is covered in an olive slime which contains all the spores. Once the flies have visited, all the slime is carried away, exposing the white coloured cap beneath.
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