Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Thursday - April 10, 2008
From: Cameron, MO
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of pink flower near Austin
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
My mother found a flower early this spring at Chrystal Falls park just outside of Austin. It was between red and salmon pink in color, tubular in shape and about 4 inches long. It smells very bad, attracts blow flies and only lives for a day or so. It doesn't appear to have a stem, just grows right on the ground. The park people said they had never seen the plant before and didn't know what it was. Hope you can help us, we're both avid wildflower watchers. Thanks.ANSWER:
Mr. Smarty Plants has two suggestions for the identity of your mother's pink flower—one of which isn't a flower at all, but a mushroom. In fact, from your description (no stem and bad smell) I would put my money on one of the stinkhorn mushrooms (Family Phallaceae)—perhaps Mutinus caninus or Mutinus elegans. Stinkhorns are very definitely smelly and are very likely to be covered by flies attracted to the odor. The flies spread the spores from the mushroom that stick to their legs when they walk across its surface.
The plant possibilties are the coralroots—Hexalectris spicata (spiked crested coralroot), Hexalectris nitida (Glass Mountain crested coralroot) or Corallorhiza wisteriana (spring coralroot). These all occur in Travis County, Texas and bloom in the spring. They don't, however, smell really bad, so my guess is that your mother saw one of the stinkhorn fungi.
Mr. SP would really be interested to know if she agrees once she has seen the photos.
More Plant Identification Questions
Plant identification in Parker County, Texas
June 14, 2011 - Hi. Growing alongside a country road, here in Parker County I photographed what I thought might be cardinal flowers. However, in searching books and on the net, I cannot find any quite like these. ...
view the full question and answer
Texas wildflower guide with every flower listed
November 09, 2012 - Is there a Texas wildflower guide that contains every single flower that grows in the state? I have a few flowers on my land I haven't been able to identify because they aren't in the guide I have. ...
view the full question and answer
Identification of vine with large leaves and blue-black berries
January 15, 2013 - I visited a creek with a limestone seep spring that supplies it. Around the creek is growing some kind plant that has leaves that are very similar to a briar, or snailseed. However, the leaves of the ...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
June 01, 2009 - I'm trying to identify a bush/shrub that is approx. 6 ft. with leaves like an azalea but has orange hot air balloon shaped balls that turn to small orange flowers. Blooming now in May. Dies back ea...
view the full question and answer
Name for paloverde look-alike near Colorado Springs
July 26, 2011 - I don't know where this plant comes from. However, I am wondering what the name of plant of the following description would be. It is a shrub, about 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. It grows in zone 6 t...
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |