Phallus haitangensis
Begonia, belonging to the fungus, ghost pen order, ghost pen family, ghost pen genus. Photo taken on Mount Ailao.
I don't know if you have ever had the experience of walking under the mountain forest or passing through a bamboo forest, and suddenly smelling a strange putrid smell, like the smell of rotten meat, and carefully searching for it but not finding the source of the smell. You may not believe it, but the fairy-like begonia bamboo in the picture is because of the strong putrid smell, attracting photographers who are several meters away from it.
How smelly is Begonia? Put it this way, if you take it into the house, everyone will escape as long as the sense of smell is ok. Usually researchers don't dare to dry it in the herbarium because it would ruin an entire laboratory.
Bamboo thorn is a general term for a class of fungus in the genus Ghost Pen in the family Ghost Pen, which originally had its own genus Dictyophora, and is now treated as a synonym for Phallus.
As the name suggests, bamboo thorns mostly prefer to grow in bamboo forests, but they can also appear in shell forests, roadsides, and even lawns. At the base of the mature bamboo shoot is an egg-shaped bacteriosteum, which is the main source of water and nutrients for the entire fruiting body; in the middle there is a foamy stalk, and the fluffy structure allows it to rapidly expand and elongate, pushing the top cap out of the corpus; and then, a long skirt hangs from the inside of the cap.
The fungus cap is the main part of the bamboo shoot that carries the spores and releases a strong putrid odor to attract various insects. The fungal skirt is like the petals of a plant, which not only sets off the elegant and noble temperament of the bamboo, but also attracts the surrounding insects - if there is no mushroom skirt, even if it releases a strong smell, many flying insects are difficult to find the real location of the bamboo; of course, the mushroom skirt can also be used as a climbing ladder for ants, bullettails and other flying insects, so that all insects can go directly to the fungus cover and enjoy a sumptuous banquet! After a full meal, these diners will catch the spores of the bamboo and fly away!
Bamboo thorns are not uncommon in our lives - long-skirted bamboo thorns, red bamboo thorns are well known for being edible, yellow skirt bamboo thorns are the only known poisonous bamboo thorns, and vermilion bamboo thorns will even grow on the lawns that often pass by.
If you want to know if you can eat begonia bamboo thorns, I am afraid that you will be disappointed. Because it was only "registered" in 2016, scientific researchers first reported it in Ailao Mountain, at least so far there has been no public tasting report, so it is recommended that everyone not try.
Wang Gengshen, pen name mushroom picking little monkey, large fungus enthusiast, happy to share interesting fungal science, is currently a PhD student at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Planning coordinator: Zhao Juan Lian Huiling
Text/Photo: Wang Gengshen
Poster Design: Zheng Biyin