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Species Information
Summary:
Not available
Fruiting body: beginning as round to oval egg-form up to 5cm wide, the outer covering white to buff with a gelatinous inner layer, rupturing to form volva at base of stem; mature fruitbody 6-16cm high, composed of small rounded latticed head on long stem; head 1.5-3.5cm wide, ''round to somewhat flattened, comprised of a latticework of red to orange (or sometimes yellowish or white) branches which form rather small meshes or "windows"'', the outer edges of the branches keeled; spore mass coating the inside surfaces of the latticed head and sometimes spilling out, "mucilaginous, dark olive to olive-brown or drying blackish", fetid at maturity, (Arora), stem and cap most commonly deep bright pink, but can be yellow or white; hollow stem with closed lattice structure at top, the windows between the walls of the lattice with foul-smelling dark olive slime; when very fresh, the odor may be described as "sweet", but the foul smell intensifies as the slime is exposed to air; one of the less offensive-smelling stinkhorns, (Metzler), eggs spherical to elongated, up to 4.5cm x 4cm, "white to buff, tearing open irregularly, seated on white mycelial strands"; fruit body up to 15cm tall, with long hollow cylindric stem up to 3cm wide, very variable in size and stature, stem yellow as originally described but can be reddish or white, surmounted by a nearly spherical to ovoid clathrate network of anastomosing arms "with from about 20 to 100 relatively small, mostly pentagonal to hexagonal meshes, at first yellowish, becoming orange or red on collapsing", in effete specimens the head becomes depressed or even kidney-shaped; the arms are sharply keeled on the outer edge, corrugated on the sides and flat or keeled on the inner surface; the dark olive-green spore mass at first fills the entire interior of the head and extends outwards between the arms, (Dring)
Stem: 5-13cm x 0.8-3cm, "hollow, fragile, rather spongy, equal or tapered", usually red in upper part and paler in lower part, "but yellow or white in some forms"; volva present at base of stem as a loose, lobed sack or pouch, usually with white mycelial cords attached to base, (Arora)
Odor: strong and very disagreeable (Miller)
Taste: mild (button), (Miller)
Microscopic: spores 3.5-4.5 x 1.5-2.5 microns, elliptic to oblong, smooth, (Arora), spores 4-4.5 x 1.5-2 microns (Dring), spores inamyloid (Metzler)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious (occasionally two from same volva), in rich soil, lawns, gardens, open woods, on rotten wood, etc., (Arora), single to numerous on fertile ground or on mulch, following spring rains, or also fall and winter, (Metzler)
Similar Species
Clathrus ruber lacks the long stem. Lysurus cruciatus has simple erect arms.
