? weird fungus Nice south of france (1 Viewer)

I saw these weird looking things today - they had obviously collapsed on themselves and seemed to be very attractive to flies though I couldn't smell anything obvious. I think they would have looked remarkably like a child's shape sorter toy when not collapsed

There were 4 of these things apparently growing from the roots of a tree that had been chopped down .
None of my books have anything like it
thanks for any help

alison

Hi Alison

I've seen something very similar on Mallorca. They really look like that and have not collapsed.

I think its name is Clathrus ruber P. Micheli ex Pers. (1801) (Phallaceae - the stinkhorns).

It has several common names including Latticed Stinkhorn. It even occurs in the UK.

Martin

honeym said:

Hi Alison

I've seen something very similar on Mallorca. They really look like that and have not collapsed.

I think its name is Clathrus ruber P. Micheli ex Pers. (1801) (Phallaceae - the stinkhorns).

It has several common names including Latticed Stinkhorn. It even occurs in the UK.

Martin

Click to expand...

Hi martin , thanks thats brilliant about the name - I can see some photos online now- so thats great

I do know that these particular ones have collapsed because i've saw them last year and they are like a lattice in the shape of football stitching [soccerballs] but without filling and are very definitely ball shaped .

now that i have the name -I could find some that are exactly similar.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Clathrus_ruber_mature.jpg

However they don't seem to last very long before collapsing- a couple of hours probably . One of the fungi was only half collapsed yesterday but it was impossible to photograph properly

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo when i saw them at their peak last year because when went back the next day they were in a much worse looking state than the ones I photographed .

thanks again!
alison