I'm just a sheep right along with you guys.
And because of that I have no other choice but to write about something I saw a couple of days ago. Because I'm kinda out of original fresh new ideas, so I had to use one of my stashes of interesting topics.
So a bunch of my friends know the edible mushrooms around the place they live (which is a pretty good talent if you ask me, especially when you love eating mushrooms), but I'm pretty sure they will be amazed at the next one just as much as I was.
First off Clathrus archeri, or by its common name, the Octopus Stinkhorn.
This mushroom is indigenous to Australia and Tasmania, but you probably won't have a problem with finding it, because when it matures it smells like putrid flesh. The Octopus Stinkhorn is edible, but its taste is extremely foul. The eggs of this fungus taste and smell like radish and are the only edible stage. It should only be eaten in a wilderness survival circumstance when no other food is available. In other cases, it is considered inedible.
The next one is Mycena chlorophos, the Bioluminescent fungi.
These beauties emerge on the really rainy days in Japan and Brazil, then proceed to splatter their glowing spores on the ground of the forests they live in. They mostly live in bases of tree trunks, fallen branches, leaf litter and moist soil.
The third one is Entoloma hochstetteri, or as the common name for it goes, the Sky Blue Mushroom.
This species is found in India and New Zealand. They generally live in woodlands, and as far as I read it's not known if it's edible or not as of yet. So I guess I should write a side-note here that says you shouldn't try eating it if you ever come across it. (But who would want to eat it when you can look at how pretty it is?)
The fourth mushroom is utterly funny but at the same time really, really gross. It's called Mutinus caninus, or Dog Stinkhorn (will you guess why? :)).
This one is closer to our home- it can be found in European and North American wood debris, or in leaf litter. They grow in little groups, and they are generally considered inedible. Tho there are a couple of instances where their immature eggs are consumed.
And the last one for today is Chorioactis geaster, the Devil's cigar.
This is one of the rarest mushrooms in the world, and it's also called the Texas Star. I bet that gives you guys a hint of where does this mushroom live... yeah... central Texas. The mushroom has a cigar shape, then when it matures it opens up like a little star to spread its spores. And it will do this with a weird whistling noise.