the veiled lady

A pretty damsel adorning a bridal veil.

the veiled lady fungi

The veiled lady, or the bridal veil stinkhorn as it is popularly known, belongs to the fungi family of stinkhorns. A mature stinkhorn has a phallic structure which is about 10-15cm high and with a cap on top, skirted with a net/membrane (indusium), and hence its scientific name, phallus indusiatus. The veiled lady mushroom is edible, and enjoys an elite status for its medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. Indeed, an obscure study states that the smell emanating from these mushrooms can trigger spontaneous orgasms in human females!

bridal veil stinkhorn

Insects and ants are attracted to the odoriferous viscous slime (known as gleba) from the cap above, which contains the fungi spores for reproduction. This ensures an efficient dispersal of the spores for regeneration elsewhere, for a mushroom which is alive only for a few hours or days.

Reference

  1. Dash, P. K., D. K. Sahu, S. Sahoo, and R. Das, 2010: Phallus indusiatus Vent. & Pers.(Basidiomycetes)-a new generic record for Eastern Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2, 1096-1098.
  2. Soule, N., 2001: Spontaneous Female Orgasms Triggered by the Smell of a Newly Found Tropical Dictyophora Desv. Species. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, 3.

10 Responses

  1. s says:

    can’t seem to find the spores to purchase in the States. Anyone bought any?

  2. This is a beautiful mushroom indeed, but it absolutely does NOT cause orgasms in Island women, or any women, for that matter.

    The study was very poorly done, the paper lacked references (an absolute must in science) and the entire “study” was funded by Big Pharma, in hopes of finding a female aphrodisiac, told to me by study author Holliday himself.

    Since it would be sold in the gray zone of “medicinal mushrooms” vs an FDA approved drug, apparently the standards are much much lower. But if it had worked, we’d already see it on the market. The study was done in 2001.

    Stinkhorns STINK, to both men and women. When Holliday attempted to present this garbage to mycological conferences, he was rightly ridiculed.

    But apparently, it has found a home in popular media, once again.

    Let’s all try a think a bit harder with our marvelous brains, shall we?

    • rocksea says:

      Thanks Debbie. This is why we cited it as a claim by an obscure study. I had gone through the paper, and it doesn’t have any methodology, clinical investigation or references. Probably the mushroom works as a placebo 🙂

      Cheers,

    • finton says:

      Jez relax Karen he said it was obscure, i guess you have never tried them so lol

  3. Daisy Debs says:

    Never seen one of these before ! Absolutely beautiful photograph …thankyou for sharing !

  4. Wow… fantastic captures 🙂

  5. Wonderful images and the name is so appropriate!

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