What IS that?
It wasn’t pulsating. That was reasurring. There was no eerie glow. I had no idea. I’d never seen anything like this anywhere. And where WAS this you might wonder ? It appeared overnight in one of my outdoor flowerpots.
What IS this?
” Is this an egg “, I thought. What kind of animal produces an egg that does THAT ? Sort of builds itself a useless parachute and then puts holes in it. Didn’t make sense.
This induced nonsensical explanations in my head – Dr. Seuss was involved in crossbreeding a wiffle ball and a quail egg.
Another possibliity, not so benign -something already hatched out of that egg , will grow exponentially larger and by next week, we’ll be on the mothership, abducted by the pod people.
The first call was to my friend Scott in Vieques, a writer and knower of all things horticultural, who knew what this was and gave me the Latin.
They’re in the mushroom family. The fruiting body is the cage like formation which attracts flies to enter, feed and with their feet, spread the spores. Oh, goody. More of these.
The egg like structure has root formations from which this whole bizarre array of fungii originate. With names like ” Phallus ravenelii, Mutinus caninus, Phallus hadriani, how can you not go look at the link above!
Michael Kuo has great photos and writes well and knowledgeably.
They last a day and then they’re gone.
That cold front that blasted New England worked its’ way down here. I only mention it ( see how squally, windy and overcast it was ?) because it coincided hilariously with our local, early morning weather channel.
It showed our local temperature in Christiansted this morning as -10. Minus ten. Clearly the proofreader was busy doing other things. It wasn’t THAT cold. Even though there’s snow on my blog. Happy Holidays.
Yes, there’s no painting to post. But industry lives, as does creativity. I’m taking a small detour to do another furniture piece for a fund raiser-the same cause I did Chairman Meow for last year.
Tags: clathraceae, Dr. Seuss, gardening in Caribbean, humor, Michael Kuo, mushrooms, photography, St. Croix
Asheville: The North West of The South East 
December 17, 2008 at 4:16 am |
Bonnalaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, If I had seen that thing in my flower pot I would have moved.
And thanks for explaining the snow. I thought my eyes had finally gone from reading Bill’s blog and looking at his blurry painting.
I KNOW it’s not -10 there. Cause I think it’s -10 here. Brrrrr. I just walked Kaiya and it’s snowing. Real snow, not the kind that makes me think I’m losing my eyesight!
xoxo
December 17, 2008 at 4:17 am |
I was going to say that it looked mushroomy.
Then when I was looking at that shore picture it started snowing. Oh, you are a funny one Ms. Luria.
It’s nice to hear something from you, even if it is not a painting.
Happy Holidays.
December 17, 2008 at 4:18 am |
Oh man, Here I thought that I finally had the first comment spot on your blog and Carol beat me to it while my thumbs were typing.
Oh well.
December 17, 2008 at 6:24 am |
Nope..that is definitely an alien pod…run for your life.
I just woke up from some strange nightmare where teethy red fish were walking on the beach and I was shooting them to protect small children.
Why else would I be up at 1:24 AM?
December 17, 2008 at 11:54 am |
Did Larry like the mushroom?
December 17, 2008 at 11:59 am |
Let me see, I think I’ll splurge tonight and have the “Phallus revenlii”, please. Does that come with fries?
December 17, 2008 at 12:56 pm |
Carol- now you know why I wear gloves ( hazmat issue ) when I do yard work. Thigh high fishing boots could be next.
Frank-Glad to read two comments from you. Maybe I should stay away more often. I checked your weather this morning when I looked at your workshop info and it’s 38 degrees – I think this snow came from YOU.
Wreggie-those must have been the lion fish that Fish and Wildlife have found here. Then no ones’ safe.
Judy- Larry wants to be hand fed and I wouldn’t touch that thing even with hazmat gloves!
Pat- revenlii calls for gnocchi and maybe some old chianti. Which I would need vats of if any of those wound up on my plate. Not even Anthony Bourdain….well, maybe he would.
December 17, 2008 at 4:02 pm |
Bonnie, It gets pretty cold fast here at night because we are so high up. It’s been high 60s or 70’s if the sun is out.
December 17, 2008 at 9:00 pm |
Wow! What a funky ‘shroom! Did it smell really bad, too?
Love the snow!!
December 19, 2008 at 12:42 am |
What a hilarious post (and with the little snowballs falling all over your site…)! Thanks for making me laugh. 🙂
December 19, 2008 at 1:02 am |
Love the snowy effect. But ten below in St. Croix? That’ll be a cold day in h—!
Well, at least the fungus thingy was a pretty coral color.
December 19, 2008 at 1:55 am |
Terry- I’ve read the smell is awful but trust that I didn’t get near close enough. It’s the smell that draws the flies.
Jala- glad you got a laugh, I know this has been a sad week. And you’re still painting.
Sharon-the color was even more intense in the early part of the day. Rotting makes colors dissipate fast.
December 19, 2008 at 3:34 pm |
Oh! You’re right, I couldn’t resist visiting the link where there were more of these strange things! Wow.
Love your snow effect too. I hear that snow does drop to sea level where it’s usually warm, interesting. If it does ever happen in your area, I’m hoping you’ll take lots and lots of photos before your flip flops freeze!
Best of luck with your chair project. Your Chairman Meow was wonderful.
December 20, 2008 at 9:20 pm |
Did you notice? The snow follows your cursor.
Now the “stinkhorn”, well that’s REALLY interesting. Think how it must look to the fly who comes to dine and spread spores! There could be a story there.
Don
December 21, 2008 at 4:55 pm |
I can’t believe it’s only been a year since Chairman Miao!! Loved that piece.
You come up with the most marvelously interesting posts!! WOW… And you just bring people right in with your writing too! I don’t think that there are so many more unusual things down there where you live, you just let yourself LIVE and you see more!!
Love it!
Happy Holidays.
December 21, 2008 at 11:43 pm |
Melinda- If my flip flops ever freeze, I think blogging would be the last thing on the agenda!
Don- it didn’t follow mine! That makes me the Curser!
To the fly, that stinkhorn must look like Bacchus to us.
Marian- thank you- you always leave comments that more than make up for yech-y days at the easel.
I so appreciate the cheer.
Great holiday to you and send a good word to your Dad too!
December 30, 2008 at 3:10 pm |
That is just plain weird!! Always well written and extremely interesting!