You see some funny things in the garden sometimes. We discovered the oddest looking creature the other day that was so odd we couldn’t figure out if it was real or if we were seeing things (and no, we hadn’t been smoking anything).

My good wife had recently made the comment ‘Can you smell something terrible over by the fence? I think something’s died over there’. I feebly tried replying to this along the lines of ‘You know, they say a fox smells it’s own scent first ha ha’ or something incredibly witty which of course, fell on deaf ears.

So I rummaged around in the sugarcane mulch (this was in our vege garden) and lo and behold this thing was uncovered. The most beautiful looking, but also terrifying creature gazed up at me. It did give off a faintly disgusting smell, not unlike a dead animal and it seemed to be covered with a brown, gooey, sticky stuff as well. Note my incredibly detailed scientific description here…

‘WELL DON’T TOUCH THE BLOODY THING’ was her shouted instruction when I told her what it looked like, but of course, being the fearless type I am, I gingerly lifted it out with the spade and plopped it somewhere we could take a closer look.

I popped inside and had a quick Google for ‘red smelly fungus’ and up came photos of the thing and a good description too. It’s called Aseroe rubra or the Star Fish or Stinkhorn Fungi. The article said that small dogs have died from ingesting the things but cases of human poisoning are apparently unknown. Hell, I’m not really surprised, there’s no way I would ever fancy cooking one of these suckers up and having it on toast for brekky…

But it just got me thinking how incredibly efficient evolution is at ensuring the survival of a species by evolving not only a striking red ‘flower’ but also a scent that very accurately mimics the foul odor of rotting flesh to ensure that it will attract flies to spread its spores and reproduce. No doubt other pollinator species wouldn’t give a second look at a butt-ugly bit of fungus so by evolving something to appeal to a less conventional insect it ensured it’s success. Ain’t nature just wonderful?!