Friday, May 21, 2010

Can someone identify this plant for me? I think someone may have planted it in my yard .?

It is a single shoot that is about 6" tall. It has a soft bulb with small roots, the base of the plant is light orange and the color becomes increasingly darker until it is almost red near the top and the very tip of the plant looks like it was dipped in tar. The bulb is almost like a foam inside and has a fungis/mushroom smell to it. There are about 15 of them growing several inches apart from one another. What is this plant?

Can someone identify this plant for me? I think someone may have planted it in my yard .?
Actually, what you're describing is not a plant - it's a fungus, one of the group known as stinkhorns (also called phallic fungus). One common stinkhorn is the Devil's dipstick, which is probably what you're describing. The greasy black substance oozing from the tip of the plant contains the spores or reproductive bodies of the fungus. Stinkhorns are fairly common and pop up in moist areas throughout much of North America; yours was probably not planted intentionally.





Plants use photosynthesis to survive (capturing the sun's energy to make sugars using chlorophyll); fungi generally are parasites that feed on organic material and do not have chlorophyll.
Reply:In my native language it is a "stinkhoring" or stinkhorn. It is a kind of fungus that belong to the phallus genus. Go look for pictures on the net. I am sure you'll find it.
Reply:"There are about 15 of them growing several inches apart from one another. What is this plant?"





is it a spider web pattern? or a ring?





i'll bet you could take a digital picture, and include the url in your post.
Reply:Sounds like it might be a poppy? I had them show up out of nowhere in my yard too... a friend of mine who is really into gardening said that they often show up because birds like to eat poppy seeds, then of course they "drop" whatever they eat all over the place, and then the seeds can grow from there.
Reply:You are describing a fungus of some kind.

barber

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