It is called an indusium and helps disperse the fetid smell of the stinkhorn's slime over a larger area. The slime attracts the flies which carry the spores around.
Amazingly the stinkhorn drops its net in a matter of 30 minutes, which means you can literally watch this happen in front of you in real time if you really wanted to.
Billy the Poet Everyone has to save against poison/paralysis or that stuff will start growing in your brain.
fermun Oh man! The stinkhorn had a leaf on it. On a tv show! How embarassing for it!
Camonk Nature is at its most creepy and horrifying when it's pulsating. Why is that?
kingarthur Someone should have thought to do a time lapse like this of that Phillipino Swamp Thing guy. That's what his makes me think of: horrible, mutant strains of HPV.
garcet71283 Needs the Mycon theme from Star Control 2.
Syd Midnight +5 because I get to repeat my favorite slime mold related British headline, re: a slime mold slug solving a simple maze: "OOZE A CLEVER BOY?"
rroach THERE IS NOTHING SEXUAL ABOUT MUSHROOMS! THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE! DO NOT PICK, oh god, don't touch, DON'T TOUCH THE MUSHROOMS, oh gross Billy.
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