Phallus impudicus , known everyday as common stinkhorn , is a widespread fungus that can be recognized for its foul odor and its phalic form as an adult, the latter feature gave rise to several names in 17th century England. It is a common fungus in Europe and North America, where it occurs in habitats rich in wood chips such as forest and patterned gardens. It comes from summer to late autumn. The structure of the fruit is tall and white with a dark slimy conical head and slimy. Known as gleba, this material contains spores, and is transported by insects attracted by the smell - described as resembling a carcass. Despite the stench, it is non-toxic and the immature mushrooms are consumed in parts of France and Germany.
Video Phallus impudicus
Taxonomy
Botanist John Gerard called it "pricke mushroom" or "fungus virilis penis effigie" in his General Historie of Plants in 1597, and John Parkinson called it "Hollanders workingtoole" or "phallus hollandicus" in his Theatrum botanicum > 1640. Linnaeus describes it in 1753 Species Plantarum , and still uses its original binomial name. The specific nickname, impudicus , is derived from Latin for "shameless" or "disrespectful".
Maps Phallus impudicus
Description
Sometimes called a wizard's egg, an immature stinkhorn is whitish or pink, egg-shaped, and usually 4 to 6 cm (1.6 to 2.4 inches) with 3 to 5 cm (1 , 2 to 2.0 inches).
Outside is a thick whitish volleyball, also known as the peridium, which covers the olive gelatin glaba. This is the last one that contains spores and then smells rotten and attracts flies; in this layer is the green layer that will be the 'head' of the expanded fruit body; and in this is a white structure called receptaculum (stalk when expanded), which is difficult, but has a spongy space-like structure. Eggs become stinkhorns that grow perfectly fast, for one or two days. The adult stinkhorn has a diameter of 10 to 30 cm (3.9 to 11.8 inches) and 4 to 5 cm (1.6 to 2.0 inches), with a conical cap of 2 to 4 cm (0.8 to 1.6 inches ) are covered with brownish-brown slimy gleba. In older fungi, the mucus is eventually discarded, showing a hollow and yellowish (reticulate ) surface. It has a resemblance to the general morel ( Morchella esculenta ), which is sometimes wrong. The growth rate of Phallus impudicus has been measured at 10-15Ã, cm (4-6Ã, in) per hour. The growing fruit body is capable of deploying up to 1.33 kPa of pressure - a force sufficient to push through the asphalt. Spores have an elliptical shape until oval, with dimensions of 3-5 to 1.5-2.5 Âμm.
In North America, Phallus impudicus can be distinguished from a very similar P. hadriani to the last purple volva.
Dissolution of spores
The dissolution of spores is different from most "typical" mushrooms that propagate their spores through the air. Stinkhorns instead produce a mass of sticky spores on their ends that have a pungent odor, sweet smell-sickly carcasses to attract flies and other insects. Hazardous chemicals in the gleba include methanethiol, hydrogen sulfide, linalool, trans -ocimene, phenylacetaldehyde, dimethyl sulfide, and dimethyl trisulfide. The last compound has been found emitted from fungating wound cancer. The ripe fruit body can smell from a considerable distance in the forest, and at close range most people find a very disgusting shameful smell. The flies landed on the gleba and thus collected the mass of spores on their feet and took them to another location. An Austrian study shows that blow-flies (species Lucifer caesar , Lucilia ampullacea
There is also the possibility of an ecological relationship between sets P.Ã, impudicus and badger ( P.esimple ). The fruit body is usually grouped in zones 24 to 39 meters (79 to 128 feet) from the entrance; Setts usually keep a regular supply of badger cadavers available on a regular basis - high tiger mortality rates, and deaths more likely to occur within the settlement. The growth of large numbers of stinkhorns attracts high population blows ( Calliphora and Lucilla breeds in carcasses); This ensures the rapid removal of a badger carcass, eliminating the potential source of the disease to the civet colony. The laxative effect of the gleba reduces the distance from the fruit body to where the spores are stored, ensuring continued production of high stinkhorn density.
Distribution and habitat
Common stinkhorn can be found in most of Europe and North America, and stinkhorn has also been collected in Asia (including China, Taiwan, and India), Costa Rica, Iceland, Tanzania and Southeast Australia. In North America, most commonly west of the Mississippi River; Ravenel's stinkhorn ( Phallus ravenelii ) is more common in the east. Fungi are associated with decayed wood, and are therefore most commonly found in deciduous forests where fruits from summer to late autumn, though also can be found in conifer forests or even grassy areas such as parks and gardens. It can also form mycorrhizal associations with certain trees.
Usage
Attraction
At the egg stage, the inner layer pieces ( receptaculum ) can be cut with a knife and eaten raw. They are crunchy and crunchy with an interesting turnip flavor. This mushroom is enjoyed and eaten in France and parts of Germany, where it can be sold fresh or pickled and used in sausages. Similar species are consumed in China.
Medical properties
Venous thrombosis, the formation of blood clots in blood vessels, is a common cause of death in breast cancer patients; patients with recurrent disease are usually retained on anticoagulants during their lifetime. A research study has suggested that extracts from P.Ã, impudicus may reduce the risk of this condition by reducing the incidence of platelet aggregation, and may have potential as a supportive prevention nutrient. It was used in medieval times as a remedy for gout and as a love herb.
Folk uses
In Northern Montenegro, farmers rub the Phallus impudicus in the bull's throat before a bull fight contest in an effort to make them stronger. They are also fed to young bulls because they are considered powerful aphrodisiacs.
In 1777, the priest John Lightfoot wrote that people from Thuringia called the "not dead" stinkhorns "ghost eggs or daemons" and dried them before mixing them with spirits as aphrodisiacs.
In culture
Writing about life in Victorian Cambridge, Gwen Raverat (grandson of Charles Darwin) described the 'sport' of Stinkhorn hunting:
In our native forests grow a kind of umbrella mushroom, which is called in the local language The Stinkhorn , although in Latin it contains a more coarse name. His name is justified, because the mushroom can be hunted by the scent alone; and this is a great invention of Aunt Etty. Armed with a basket and a pointed stick, and wearing a special hunting robe and gloves, he would sniff the wood, stop here and there, his nostrils moving, when he caught the smell of his prey; then finally, with a deadly attack, he will fall upon his victim, and poke his stinky carcass into his basket. At the end of the day's sport, the catch was brought back and burned in the deepest secrecy over the living room fire, with the door locked; because of the morals of the servants .
In the novel Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain ( Der Zauberberg ), psychologist Dr. Krokowski gave a lecture on phallus impudicus :
And Dr. Krokowski has spoken of a mushroom, well known since classical antiquity because of its form and power which it derives from it - a morel, its Latin name ends with an impudicus, its form reminiscent of love, and its smell, death. For the foul smell released by impudicus is as striking as a decaying corpse, the odor from the greenish slimy mucus that carries the spores and drips off the bell-shaped lid. And even today, among the uneducated, this morel is considered an aphrodisiac.
References
External links
- Media related to Phallus impudicus in Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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