Morning Find

It seems like everyday we find something new to explore.  Some days we need to go hunting for things at the beach, in the bush, in Christiansted, etc.  Other days, our find come to us.  Today was a case in point.  we opened the front door this morning and an AWFUL smell entered the house - almost like something was dying. My first thought was that the cat:

brought us a present and hid it somewhere over the weekend while trying to emulate the Easter Bunny. Then C found it, A yelled at me to come see, and I grabbed the camera.  What did we find you ask?

Tada! Here it is.......

WHAT IS THAT?!?!


It's a Clathrus ruber or a fungus in the stinkhorn family. It is also know as the latticed stinkhorn, red cage, or basket stinkhorn.  It feeds of decaying woody plant material, and is usually found alone in areas where there is mulch, leaf litter, grassy soil, etc.  The brown part is the sticky, stinky pollen.  It smells so bad to attract flies, ants, etc.  It really does smell bad, not as bad as 24 hour side of the road Caribbean road kill, but pretty close.  


Go find something and learn about it. Just remember if you see one of these guys, wear a gas mask!