Who let the dogs out?

You can take the mycologist away from fungi but you can't take fungi away from... or something like that.

Anyway, on my first stroll around the sidestreets in West Philadelphia I was delighted to come upon this cluster of detumescent dog dicks growing from some mulch in a small community garden. Now, I realise that I can see a dog's penis every day at home, whether I want to or not, but these are something different. The dog stinkhorn is named for its resemblance to the said appendage. Like all stinkhorn fungi its phallic-shaped fruiting body emerges from a gelatinious egg and erects itself with a tip covered in foul-smelling black slime containing spores. It smells of putrefaction which attracts flies to feed upon it. Then they transfer some of the spores to the next stinkhorn in the material clinging to their legs and fertilization is accomplished. A brief period of erection is enough before the smelly stuff is all consumed and the stem loses its rigidity and collapses in the manner seen here - job done. There was only one still erect member of this group hosting a few flies on its tip's slimy surface.

The scientific name Mutinus caninus derives from the Roman fertility god Mutinus who was the Latin version of the Greek phallic deity Priapus, always depicted in a state of high arousal. Once uncommon, nowadays dog stinkhorns are often to be seen popping up from the bark mulch used in parks and sub/urban gardens, like these little flashers. People still get embarrassed, it seems, as they did in Victorian times, on discovering a priapic invasion in their flowerbed, and the noxious smell that accompanies it. The admirable mycology website writer Tom Volk provides some examples of desperate emails he has received on this subject. He takes pleasure in advising that there's no way to get rid of it save paving over your mulch - in fact you'd be barking mad to try. He makes the point
"Something fun like stinkhorns show up in their mulch, and many want to just kill it. My recommendation is that you find a way to enjoy them. Call all the neighbors over. Call all your friends. They will marvel at your gardening skills."