# Fungus (garden) Identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838 "2010-07-07T12:30:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/1 "2010-07-07T12:30:17Z")
My BIL had several of these [fungus fruiting bodies](http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb256/GaryM_photo/Misc/fungus01.jpg), I think that’s the term, pop up in the rubber mulch around one on his trees in the yard. No idea of what it might be. It was about 5 inches tall. Should he be spraying anything on the area? Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/2 "2010-07-07T13:10:08Z")
Phallus impudicus. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/3 "2010-07-07T13:27:03Z")
OK, I thought you were being a smart ass, but I was incorrect. :smack: Thanks for the knowledge. Very interesting. I’ll look forward to sharing with my BIL. Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/4 "2010-07-07T14:35:53Z")
Ha, I texted from my cellphone, so I had to be brief. To answer your other question, spraying would be a shame, even if there was something that would kill the fungus and not every other type of plant and soil life around. Even if you don’t like these interesting mushrooms, they only bloom for a short while and afterwards there is nothing to see of them. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/5 "2010-07-07T14:59:33Z")
Well, my BIL is fussy about his lawn, as are many Americans. Myself, I have 5 acres of grass and woods, so a few fungi here and there are no big deal to me. Myself, I don’t worry about the small stuff. After all the local wildlife use the whole place as their bathroom. Maybe he thinks the little girls in his neighborhood will be shocked? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/6 "2010-07-07T15:07:02Z")
This paragraph from the Wikipedia page is priceless; it’s written by Charles Darwin’s granddaughter, describing life in Victorian England: > [@](#): > > In our native woods there grows a kind of toadstool, called in the vernacular The Stinkhorn, though in Latin it bears a grosser name. The name is justified, for the fungus can be hunted by the scent alone; and this was Aunt Etty’s great invention. Armed with a basket and a pointed stick, and wearing special hunting cloak and gloves, she would sniff her way round the wood, pausing here and there, her nostrils twitching, when she caught a whiff of her prey; then at last, with a deadly pounce, she would fall upon her victim, and poke his putrid carcase into her basket. At the end of the day’s sport, the catch was brought back and burnt in the depest secrecy on the drawing-room fire, with the door locked; because of the morals of the maids. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/7 "2010-07-07T15:34:15Z")
See, the Latin name is why I thought **Maastricht** was pulling my leg. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fungus-garden-identification/545838/8 "2010-07-07T17:39:32Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > See, the Latin name is why I thought **Maastricht** was pulling my leg. Wiki offers some alternative names: pricke mushroom fungus virilis penis effigie Hollanders workingtoole phallus hollandicus Those last two make one wonder about the reputation of the Dutch in 17th-Century England.😃 There are number of similar risque scientific names, such as [Clitoria](http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/401/Magnoliophyta/Magnoliopsida/Fabales/Fabaceae/Clitoria/Clitoria_flower_RK_.low.jpg) and [Priapulus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Priapulus_caudatus.jpg) (little penis).