Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CLXXXV · Topic 27: Mushrooms, molds and bacteria
185. The stinkhorns optional
Goal: Your child can explain how stinkhorns use flies to carry their spores.
You'll need
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
- The book page (the photo is all you need)
What's in the book
The book says a real lesson on stinkhorns is out of the question because of the smell. It describes their egg stage, the net-covered stem, and how flies carry away the spores.
The lesson, step by step
Why this is a reading lesson
Read the first sentence together. Comstock mentions stinkhorns only to defend other mushrooms:
The reason for mentioning them at all is because of the impression made by them that most mushrooms are ill smelling, which is a slander.
The life story
Read about the "eggs" in the ground and the horn that pushes up through them. Look at the photo on the book page together.
Flies as helpers
The flies are attracted by the fetid odor and come to feast upon these fungi and to lay their eggs within them, and incidentally they carry the spores away on their brushy feet, and thus help to spread the species.
Ask: How is this like a bee carrying pollen from flower to flower? How is it different?
If you meet one
Stinkhorns often pop up in wood-chip mulch in summer and fall. You will smell one before you see it. Look from a step away, don't touch, and never taste.
Nature notebook
Draw the "egg" and the full-grown horn from the book's picture, with a fly on top. Write one sentence on why a bad smell is useful to this fungus.