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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Botanical Wednesday: Fungus that thinks it's a flower
Category: Organisms
Posted on: September 1, 2010 6:44 PM, by PZ Myers
Life ScienceTrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/146105
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Comments
Posted by: Stardrake
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September 1, 2010 6:54 PM
So that's what Van Gogh was eating....
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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September 1, 2010 6:56 PM
They look like really crappy fake poinsettias.
It's a mark of the designer (the one that made our backs).
Glen Davidson
Posted by: stevieinthecity#9dac9
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September 1, 2010 6:56 PM
I think I saw these in a Tim Burton movie once. Beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice!
Posted by: Dhorvath, OM
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September 1, 2010 6:57 PM
Kinda looks like the smurf mansion burned down to me.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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September 1, 2010 6:58 PM
So this is a Mycological Wednesday that thinks it's a Botanical Wednesday?
Posted by: jeffery.g.davis
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September 1, 2010 7:09 PM
Mushrooms worthy of Dr Seuss himself.
Posted by: KG
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September 1, 2010 7:35 PM
Sven DiMilo,
Quite so - I'm shocked at PZ, shocked, I tell you. This would be more appropriate, cladistically speaking, on a Monday! PZ, how about instituting a mycological Tuesday?
Posted by: Acronym Jim
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September 1, 2010 7:58 PM
I'd say those fungi have delusional thinking.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
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September 1, 2010 8:04 PM
Does a fungus have a CNS? I was under the impression that was a requirement for thinking. Or am I forsaking the eukaryotic-mind duality?
Posted by: Peter McKellar
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September 1, 2010 8:09 PM
First - a long overdue "PZ, sorry to hear you are not well and recover quickly". I was so upset hearing you were in hospital I couldn't even read the blog for 2 days for fear I would find your obituary instead. When I did come back I found you haven't even eased off in your output!!!
Re the fungi - I had these in my front garden the last two years running (and may get them again this year). After looking at them closely, yes, they were fungi, but unless you are right on top of them, it isn't easy to tell.
Posted by: Egg Fu Laura
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September 1, 2010 8:20 PM
This is so awesome. Made me smile. :)
Posted by: akiwiinoz
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September 1, 2010 8:32 PM
I can still remember the (irrational) chill that went up the back of my neck when I first saw some of these in a farm paddock. They looked so alien!
Posted by: albatros183
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September 1, 2010 8:50 PM
The real question is can you eat them and are 18 people willing to sacrifice themselves?
Posted by: designer handbags
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September 1, 2010 8:55 PM
wow,They look like really crappy fake poinsettias.
Posted by: MosesZD
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September 1, 2010 9:34 PM
Wow, those things are wonderful!
Posted by: Lynn Wilhelm
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September 1, 2010 9:35 PM
Botanical????
**I know I wasn't the first to point this out, but I have nothing better to do.
Interestingly, my botany teacher at NCSU was a mycologist. He said he was a fun guy and then proceeded to tell us how he was "saved" and how that was the most important thing in his life.
This was many years ago and he said he wouldn't talk about it in class any more, but wanted to bring it up in case anyone wanted to talk about it.) He didn't and I didn't. End of story.
Posted by: smsprite
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September 1, 2010 10:13 PM
I think Mario jumped over something like this in one of his worlds.
Posted by: goodlookingfatman
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September 1, 2010 10:35 PM
If eating one of those didn't kill you, I'll bet they'd send you for quite a loop.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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September 1, 2010 10:38 PM
different view:
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2006/08/aseroe_rubra.php
Posted by: Cyberguy
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September 1, 2010 10:43 PM
I have never seen these things before. What have they evolved to attract (or repel)?
Posted by: Ichthyic
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September 1, 2010 10:45 PM
the name literally means "stinking red".
the center part contains the spores, amid a gel-like substance that smells like rotting meat.
IOW, they use flies to distribute spores.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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September 1, 2010 10:47 PM
... or "disgusting red", depending.
Posted by: Antiochus Epiphanes
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September 1, 2010 11:03 PM
Flower that thinks it's a fungus
Posted by: Stanton
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September 1, 2010 11:31 PM
Well, the fungus Microbotryum dianthorum takes over the flowers of Silene alba, sabotaging them so that they stop producing pollen and their ovaries fail to grow. Insect pollinators get dusted with spores that infect new flowers.
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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September 2, 2010 3:20 AM
That's pretty lazy. Just whipping out some set design pieces from Nightmare Before Christmas. If you can't be bothered to at least go down to the garden center for Botanical Wednesday, why bother?
This may be the drug culture running through the endless thread lately, but, are they hallucinagenic?
Posted by: Samantha Vimes
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September 2, 2010 3:21 AM
It made me think of a sea anenome, which would be an animal that looks like a flower.
It looks even more like a Dr. Suess illustration.
Posted by: TrineBM
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September 2, 2010 5:42 AM
Funky Fungi
(Sorry - someone had to)
Posted by: RichVR
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September 2, 2010 7:38 AM
Ya know, I'm a rational person. I'm an adult. But if someone dared me to stick my finger into one of those, I'd tell them no. It would freak me out. I'd be worried about it biting the tip off.
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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September 2, 2010 7:43 AM
Link to follow in Portabella Document Format...
The decision to post more such examples of interesting samples in the Botanical Wednesday slot is a Morel issue that PZ will have to struggle with. Crimini, I just hope that people don't give him too much Shiitake for doing so in this time slot.
(Don't try to attempt this at home. It's all fungus names until somebody loses an eye)
Posted by: Algernon, elle sans chapeau
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September 2, 2010 11:20 AM
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zKDjcLXZBTI/RcZGemxwUnI/AAAAAAAAAIg/Q45zyiZnhhQ/s400/Blog005C.jpg
The juice is juicier in this one. Eeeeew.
It wouldn't have to bite you, you'd probably cut your own finger off to be rid of the gross junk :P
Posted by: Ichthyic
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September 2, 2010 1:18 PM
But if someone dared me to stick my finger into one of those, I'd tell them no.
considering there are chemicals there that make it smell like rotting meat, and those likely would really give you the "stinkfinger", you have legitimate, rational defense for not wanting to take that dare.
:)
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/K2PNji0at.txAjzTShOlxwLuFcVVFwbnng--#bd813
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September 2, 2010 2:07 PM
Should have Dale Arden dangling from a tentacle.
Posted by: clamcyp
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September 2, 2010 2:57 PM
Lynn Willhelm in #16 reminds me that my woodwork teacher at school kept going on about "Eh, lad, have you been saved" yet, at the same time, taught me one of the most useful things: that form follows function.
As a designer, artist, computer analyst and programmer, I have found this aphorism to be important.
The dichotomy is that the statement is essentially Darwinist - and this from a Fundamentalist!
Posted by: Markita Lynda: Healthcare is a damn right
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September 3, 2010 11:48 AM
Parallel evolution for the win!
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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September 5, 2010 1:27 PM
Bully for Gargamel!