Clathrus archeri (Seastar Stinkhorn)
The fruit body consists of red arms radiating out from the top of a short white to pinkish stem. When fully expanded, the arms may span up to 15 or so centimetres. On the arms there is a khaki-brown, foul-smelling slime which contains the spores. In general the arms taper a little towards their apices but in rare cases they fork a little. Initially the arms are joined at their apices and at times you will see some weak connecting tissue between the apices of neighbouring arms.
This is a stinkhorn and, like all stinkhorns, starts out like a small, gelatinous egg (perhaps 2-3 cm in length). The 'egg shell' is a dirty whitish membrane that holds the immature fruit body. At maturity the stem expands, breaking the membrane. A remnant of that egg remains around the base of the stem as a cup-like surround (technically a volva). You may have to scrape away some soil or leaf litter to reveal the volva. The smell and the red colour (resembling fresh meat) attract dung-loving or carrion-loving invertebrates which carry the spores further afield.
This species is found on the ground in a wide variety of habitats, both natural and man-made.
This species was formerly known as Anthurus archeri.
Look-alike
Aseroe rubra is a similar red-armed stinkhorn of similar size but the spore slime is around the centre and the arms are always forked and usually markedly so.
