Round white balls found in soil - Ask Extension
I found these solid while spheres while digging my potatoes. They are gelatinous inside. There seems to be roots attached. I didn't taste them. They s...
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Round white balls found in soil #281907
Asked October 01, 2015, 10:37 AM EDT
I found these solid while spheres while digging my potatoes. They are gelatinous inside. There seems to be roots attached. I didn't taste them. They seemed to dehydrate overnight. The last picture is a cross section the next day. What are they?
Washington County Minnesota
Expert Response
The objects in the photo are probably the immature fruiting bodies of a kind of fungus called a stinkhorn.
The fungi live off dead organic matter and are commonly found in mulched areas in the landscape. Stinkhorns start off as an egg-like, golf ball-sized structure in the soil. As the fungus develops, a stalk grows upward and is topped with a slimy cap coated with a mass of olive green to brown spores. The putrid smell of the stinkhorn cap attracts flies and other insects.
Learn more here (despite the caption, the video shows stinkhorn growth, not grape aspergillus):
http://www.plantpath.cornell.edu/PhotoLab/TimeLapse2/DogStinkhorn_credits1_FC.html
Stinkhorns are not poisonous or harmful to plants or people. Eventually, the stinkhorns wither away and disappear. Individuals can rake up and discard the fungi if their appearance or smell is bothersome.
The fungi live off dead organic matter and are commonly found in mulched areas in the landscape. Stinkhorns start off as an egg-like, golf ball-sized structure in the soil. As the fungus develops, a stalk grows upward and is topped with a slimy cap coated with a mass of olive green to brown spores. The putrid smell of the stinkhorn cap attracts flies and other insects.
Learn more here (despite the caption, the video shows stinkhorn growth, not grape aspergillus):
http://www.plantpath.cornell.edu/PhotoLab/TimeLapse2/DogStinkhorn_credits1_FC.html
Stinkhorns are not poisonous or harmful to plants or people. Eventually, the stinkhorns wither away and disappear. Individuals can rake up and discard the fungi if their appearance or smell is bothersome.
