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.

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Thursday - June 02, 2011

From: Manchester, England
Region: Other
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of a mushroom in England
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I have a fungi I cannot recognize. It has a whitish soft pithy stem about 2/3 mm wide and approximately 6-10cm long. It has no leaves just a white flower/seed case on the top of the stem. This head is 1/2cm high and 1cm wide. After one week it opens to produce a three pieced seed container. The seeds are approximately 2mm round and brown in color. From start to seeding took no more than two weeks.Can you help me with identification as this does not appear in either my mushroom or flower field guides

ANSWER:

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is dedicated to the study, conservation and use of North American native plants. We can't easily identify your British plant or fungus. There are, however, sources in Great Britain that you can consult for help. The best source, I think, would be the Postcode Plants Database from the Natural History Museum in London. Other sources are the Botanical Society of the British Isles and the Royal Horticultural Society's RHS Plant Finder.