What’s That Smell!!!!

Sometimes fascinating nature happens right in your backyard!!

We came back from a weekend trip yesterday and were unloading the car, going in and out. I stepped into the front room and felt the air conditioner kick on, blowing from the vents, and simultaneously I smelled an awful, putrid, dead animal smell.

We searched around with our noses, and finally decided it was coming from the air vent. So we called the AC guys and managed to get them scheduled for that afternoon.

The smell was waxing and waning and we were debating its source when I thought, “Uh oh,……. maybe it’s the dog….”. So we both sniffed the dog and “AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” that’s it – strong dead animal smell – like a dead opossum!! Some dogs, and this pooch in particular, like to roll and rub themselves with the scent of a dead animals.

So cancel the AC guy. Mary goes to wash the dog, while I go out back to search for a dead animal. I looked over every foot of the yard. Nothing!!

But I did notice that recent rains had brought up a few odd mushrooms.

Eureka!!! Somewhere deep in the braincase I recalled that some mushrooms have a decaying flesh odor!!

Take some pix, put on iNaturalist and Voila!!! Stinkhorn mushroom!! Lysurus sphaerocephalus Smells bad enough to make you gag!! So put some gloves on and carefully remove to trashcan. (see pix in comment).

Accoring to Wikipedia

“The stinkhorn contains compounds of carrion, such as oligosulfides, and of feces, such as phenol, indole and p-cresol. This provides evidence for mimicry of carrion and feces and convergence in the putrid scents of fungus. The stinkhorn’s scent is similar to that of rotten meat and dog feces. This scent profile supports the assumption that the stinkhorn mimics fly brood sites and food sources. The flies are being lured in by the exploitation of their innate attraction to smell of the decaying animal matter that the stinkhorn gives off.”