Thursday, January 16, 2014

on Shaptor

at long last Spot has found a dog stinkhorn (badly photographed unfortunately), smaller and more slender than its common cousin, but much more dog like (!, or maybe more appropriately :-). If only.

3 comments:

DNP said...

Mutinus caninus. I love the Wikipedia entry: The genus name Mutinus was a phallic deity, Mutinus Mutunus, one of the Roman di indigetes placated by Roman brides, and caninus means "dog-like" in Latin. Mutinus is the diminutive of muto, a Latin word for Penis. It was described initially by William Hudson (1730–1793), a noted British botanist. Its common names in French, Phallus de Chien, Satyre des chiens, also hint at its resemblance to a dog penis. It is commonly known as the "dog stinkhorn".

Spot said...

thank you Deri for some much needed information :-

DNP said...

I like the name of the common stinkhorn best - Phallus impudicus. Wonderful stuff. It always raised a teenage titter in our A Level Botany classes.