Disgusting Red Juice!

Aseroe rubra, Ancient Greek Asē/αση 'disgust' and roē/ροη 'juice', with Latin ruber 'red' (according to Wikipedia).  Spotted this 'Anenome Stinkhorn' on an Easter Monday walk at Mount Glorious today in D'Aguilar National Park, beautiful sunny weather after rather a wet weekend.  We walked from the Maiala picnic spot, which translates to 'quiet place' (Kamilroi people's word) - not so quiet today with many daytrippers at this great picnic and walking spot!  Also according to Wikipedia this was the first native Australian fungus to be formally described, which makes it quite an exciting find - the first one found was in Tasmania, so this has rather a large range; I believe its pretty common up here in south east Queensland, around 2,500 km to the north of Tasmania.

Above is the view from the Wivenhoe Lookout looking towards Lake Wivenhoe and the Enogerra dam- supplying Brisbane's water and protecting us from floods.

Funky fungus!

I found an amazing looking bright red fungus growing outside my workplace this morning, its like nothing I've ever seen before.  I thought it was a curious plastic ball someone had left on the ground, that is how odd it looks.  It has an incredible lattice structure.  It didn't take me long to find a name for it as its so distinctive: Clathrus ruber, commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage fungus.  I didn't notice it smelling, but apparently it can have quite a pungent smell.  It is not native to Australia, but in fact quite widespread across the globe, remarkable.

Original photo taken on my phone in poor light when I first spotted the fungus - not a great shot, but you can see how much more upright and rounded the fungus was when it first appeared in the rain!