A mostly dreary day with a splash of rain. And I for one will take any rain we can get now. However briefly I did see some sunshine. Now to the sweet, shaggy, and stinky. 🙂
The blue sky peeked through the clouds momentarily. The Common Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) pictured here is an example of a dioecious plant. This means the male and female have separate flowers. In this case additionally the female and male trees are on separate plants. The one in front bearing the fruit is the female. Two species of Diospyros are in North Central Texas, Common Persimmon (seen here) and Texas Persimmon (D. texana). Texas Persimmon in not here in North Texas, but is only found south and west of here.
The Common Persimmon is very delicious! But beware if not ripe it can be astringent.
Pulling off a ripe one I found it very sweet. To test for ripeness before taking a bite, feel for a soft one. And slightly wrinkly is another good sign. Another tip do not go by the old tale of it will be ripe after the first frost. A frost just says it was about the right time for them to ripen.
How many seeds did each fruit have? Most had three seeds and one had four out the four fruits I tried this morning. Many wildlife and dogs love to eat them too. In fact it was hard to get Gracie to continue a walk when we had passed by. Indeed who can blame anyone for enjoying the sweet persimmons!
A shaggy mushroom! No clue to the species.
The most I can note was that it has a skirt/ring and gills. Indeed a beauty!
Last but not the least, the stinky.
The beautiful Stalked Lattice Stinkhorn (Lysurus periphragmoides)! While as human I do consider its odor to be stinky. However some insects think it is very attractive. Soon the stinkhorn will be covered with insects ready to gobble up the slime and spread its spores.
It still had some of its volva on top. Do you see what looks like the two and a mouth on the side? 😉
The volva is the white part.
Taking a closer look, it had one main hypha at the bottom like a root. It is called a mycelial cord.
The persimmon is making my mouth water!
Pepper loves our persimmons. I love the frilly mushroom and do see the face on the stinkhorn. You find faces everywhere😄
A fragrant day!
Really wonderful fungi photos – such beauty arising from below – like the Lost City in the ocean. Sorta unreal.
That shaggy mushroom is gorgeous!