Ileodictyon cibarium

Description

Ileodictyon cibarium is a saprobic species of fungus in the family Phallaceae. It is found in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Fruiting bodies are shaped like a round or oval ball with interlaced or latticed branches. Although the immature volvae are edible, the mature fruit body is foul-smelling and covered with a slime layer containing spores on the inner surfaces.

Before the opening of the volva, the fruit body is egg-shaped and white to grayish. After opening, it is a whitish ball of meshes. It grows alone or clustered together near woody debris, in lawns, gardens, and cultivated soil.

If you examine the basket closely you will find it coated in brown slime; this is the spore mass. If you do get this close you will also discover it smells quite revolting. This attracts flies and other insects which become coated with slime and aid the distribution of the spores.

Ileodictyon cibarium commonly appears after rain and is called tutae kehua, or “ghost droppings”, by Maori. It certainly looks like the kind of thing left behind by ghosts.

Common names: Basket Fungus, Wrinkled Cage.

Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously; in woods or in cultivated areas; year-round in tropical and subtropical areas; New Zealand, Australia, and Chile (introduced in East Africa and Europe).

2. Fruiting Body

   Initially, a whitish "egg" up to 7 cm across, attached to white cords; rupturing, with the mature fruiting body emerging as a more or less round, cage-like structure, 5-25 cm across, forming 10-30 polygons; arms lumpy, about 1 cm in diameter, not thickened at the intersections, white underneath the olive-brown spore slime (formed on the inner surfaces of the arms); the egg tissue creating a whitish volva, but the mature structure often detaching from it.

3. Microscopic Features

   Spores 4-6 x 2-2.5 µ; cylindrical; smooth.

Look-Alikes

1. Clathrus ruber and similar species of Clathrus

   Also, form cage-like structures, but they remain rooted in the substrate.

2. Ileodictyon cibarium

   Detaches itself from its base. Additionally, its branches are white, rather than red to orange.

3. Ileodictyon gracile

   Similar species with slender, more graceful arms.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public Domain)

Photo 2 - Author: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public Domain)

Photo 3 - Author: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public Domain)