What sort of growth is this?

Started by Mashiem, August 13, 2010, 03:44:27 AM

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Mashiem

I have a problem...
Or rather, there's something I'm curious and need help with.

I work at a childrens daycare centre. As most places like these (at least here in Norway) we have an outdoors area, one with a few rises and trees to let the children play around an develop a feel for rough surfaces. Unfortunately the area most populated by trees are a perfect spot for mushrooms that we have to prune away daily now that the wet seasons are upon us.
One of these fungi-things are worrying us though...

This showed up for the first time two years ago, and the parents were really worried that it might be poisonous. Unfortunately we didn't find out what is actually WAS before the snowy season came and the problem was "solved".
Last year we didn't see any of them and hoped that they had died out, but this year they have returned with a vengance. I've scoured the web without finding out what exactly it is, and was hoping one of you might know something or stumble upon a piece of information.

What we DO know is this:
- It is hollow in the middle.
- The tip excretes some sticky substance that smell like dogshit.
- If you get the sticky stuff on your skin it smells bad for days, even if you wash.
- They have small "pods" (see image below) that grow in clusters underground and sprout into this.
- They are very fragile and rip apart with no effort at all.
- They quickly become limp and flacid (leftmost one is almost at that stage).
- Growthtime is less than a day from breaking ground till it's full grown.
- Largest we've seen so far is about 4 inches (10 cm) long, with most slightly below that.

What the <insert bad word here> is it?
More images here. Sorry about the size, didn't know how to resize with IMG-code.






psilocybin warrior

No idea what that is, I would dig down to the source & eliminate it if you are concerned having these growing around the children's area.  I would stop touching them without gloves on as well.