Very orange Mutinus caninus

[SheffieldLass]

I found these a few days ago. I've never seen Mutinus caninus this orange before. I presume that is what they are, and not a more exotic species. I thought someone had dumped some orange plastic in the woods, but as it hadn't been there a few days before I went to investigate. I didn't take a sample ....



Melanie

[flaxton]

Melanie
The ones I have found have always had a bright orange head but a pale stem (receptaculum) but my understanding is that it can be more orange in some specimens but not the pink/red as in the more exotics.

Mal

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by flaxton

Melanie
The ones I have found have always had a bright orange head but a pale stem (receptaculum) but my understanding is that it can be more orange in some specimens but not the pink/red as in the more exotics.

Mal

agreed - sadly I don't have access to what appears to be the closest thing to a monograph of Mutinus: Guez & Nagasawa in Nippon Kingakukai Kaiho 41 - (2000; Japan)

C

[Ditiola]

Chris
The colour of M.caninus has always puzzled me.

In The Fungi of Japan it is shown as a bright pink with only a hint of orange.

In both Bruno Cetto Vol 1. And Giovanni Pacioni - Mushrooms & Toadstools it is shown as mostly white with a distinct thin ring of orange just under the gleba

And in Moser's Farbatlas and Herve Chaumenton et al Les Champignons of Frace it is white at the base slowly fading to orange.

Your specimens are very orange

I can only assume it must be a very variable species

Peter

[Chris Yeates]

I'm reminded of what I had drummed in to me on BMS forays . . . the two least useful characters for fungal identification are size of fruitbody and colour . . .

though having said that, have a look at the illustration on the Wikipedia page:-
Mutinus caninus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

what the?

C

[Ditiola]

Very starange Looks like a 'Glow in the Dark' version


peter

[solus]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

Very starange Looks like a 'Glow in the Dark' version


peter

Not the sort of 'Glowstick' I'd want to wave at a concert.....

Ok, I'm leaving now! I've yet to see one of these funguses (sorry Chris!)

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by solus

Not the sort of 'Glowstick' I'd want to wave at a concert.....

Ok, I'm leaving now! I've yet to see one of these funguses (sorry Chris!)

Hmmm, well I walked down the road today with one on full display . Luckily the road was deserted . And thankfully the smell is very, very faint. Because there were more in the same location, just as orange as the first lot, I decided to pluck one and check the spore sizes, and they are right for M caninus. On the other side of the burial mounds were some more eggs in the woodland, quite a bit bigger than these, so probably Phallus impudicus, but they had all had their 'ends' bitten off. Ouch. There was a deer very close by, so possibly the culprit. (Maybe it found the smell offensive .... ) What you could make out of the stump of the receptacle that was left wasn't orange like these, though, which again suggests P impudicus.

Plenty of Pluteus cervinus nearby too, in most of the woodchip piles.

Melanie