Smelly rare fungus might be lurking in your wood chips
Fungus has otherworldly appearance, but it’s not a bad thing to find, smell notwithstanding
DEAR JOAN >> I share with you and your readers the appearance of a beautiful but locally rare fungus in the Bay Area.
It was originally described in the scientific literature in 1729. Creative comparisons of its appearance are “like a wiffleball,” and, from a German mycologist, as “like an alien from a science fiction horror film.”
I am a biologist and just had to identify this fungus.
Last fall an orange unknown thing appeared among the leaves in our garden. I thought it was a discarded piece of packing foam but on closer inspection I realized it was a delicate and intricate cage-like fungus — a hollow ball with interlaced branches.
I researched and identified the fungus as Clathrus ruber, Red Cage Stinkhorn fungus. It dramatically erupts from a whitish “egg” with a delicate leathery outer membrane to form a large red cage filled with a brown slime containing spores. It relies on flies for distribution.
The slime has a rotten meat smell that attracts flies, which get coated in the spore containing slime and carry it away to germinate into a new crop of fungi. The fungus is saprobic, feeding off decaying woody plant material.
This year, another Clathrus ruber grouping appeared nestled among wood chip garden mulch. This fungus is relatively rare but a beautiful sight to behold. Its foul smell would dissuade most people from eating it. — Elaine Anderson, Stanford
DEAR ELAINE >> What an amazing find, and thanks for letting us know about it. If I found that in my yard, I probably would have jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions.
DEAR JOAN >> I just installed a drip irrigation system with plastic pipes. It seems the squirrels like my pipes more than they like acorns. They chew through them to get water. What can I do? — Jim Colton, Palo Alto
DEAR JIM >> Congrats on the new irrigation system and squirrel watering station.
Convincing squirrels to leave your things alone can be a full-time job.
The easiest solution is in the category of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” Although squirrels have an actual need to chew on things — their teeth continue to grow so they must gnaw to keep them under control — in the case of irrigation lines, they’re probably just looking for water.
Try giving them their own source of water, or place a dish beneath an emitter so they can get water without having to destroy your lines.
You also can try wrapping the larger pipes and flexible tubing in landscape cloth or wire mesh. That involves a lot of work and it won’t be attractive, but it might solve your problem.
As we’re nearing our cold season, you should drain your lines, which will make them less attractive to the squirrels until you hook them up again in the spring.
If the squirrels are attacking one section of the irrigation system, try coating the pipes in hot pepper sauce, sprinkling dried chilies around them or setting out small bowls of hot sauce near the lines.
Readers, do you have experience with squirrels and irrigation lines? If so, I’d love to hear your success stories and failures, which I’m guessing probably outweigh the wins.